Manifested chapter 1
by Statrux
Summary: Have you ever wanted to meet your heroes in books movies or games. In this story one boy does. This is the epic tale of a boy names Stuart Blaine Mullin. I know its not very catchy but thats his name.This is the edited version as well
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Bad Day

I lay down on my bed and recalled the day I had just had. It started off like any normal day. You know, wake up, and go to school…. Except today I got… Well, you'll see. Let me start by telling a little about myself by describing my day. I woke up like normal moments before my mom called me to get up.

"Stuart you up?"

She yelled from the first floor.

"No."

I called back to her as sat up, rubbing my eyes. I didn't wanna get up because I was having an awesome dream though I couldn't remember what it was about. I got up and put a pair of jeans on along with a plain long sleeved shirt. Still slightly groggy I walked to the bathroom. I looking in the mirror I saw a 5'11" teenager looking back at me. His messy dark brown hair covered half of his face, only letting me see one of his brown eyes. I watched as the mirror me brushed his teeth but did nothing to fix his hair. During breakfast I watched the only thing besides new on TV worth watching…the original Pokémon show was on. (There it is …I am a nerd.) After a short breakfast my mom drove me to school. Slowly each class went by, first Math, then English, History, science and choir. I studied in all my classes that I didn't have anyone to talk to (Which is most classes because I don't have very many friends), though I would occasionally go off into a daydream about being somewhere else.

'Man this is boring.'

I thought to myself as the teacher went on about how to find length of side X on a triangle. Out of nowhere, she asked me,

"Stuart, could you find _X_ for us?"

I had no idea what she was talking about. I looked up at the board to see a triangle with X on one side. I pointed to it and said,

"It's right there."

Not thinking my joke was funny, she gave me a disapproving look and proceeded to give me a lecture, so I zoned out again until the bell rang.

"Did you hear the news about the new Kingdom Hearts game coming out next year?"

I asked Tyler and Aaron as we sat down in the back row of our history class. These are my two friends. Aaron (Aka the Jew), who I met this year, was still somewhat of a new friend to me but he was pretty cool. He was extremely smart and loved music, whether it was singing or playing or just listening to it. Tyler has been my best friend since the first few days I was in high school. Tyler is a strange kid. That's probably why we get along so well. He can be a huge goof ball when he wants to (but I'm still a bigger one) or he can be serious as an army sergeant when the time calls for it. He can sometimes have a little bit of a temper, but it's almost always invoked because I mess around too much (insert Harry Potter Puppet Palls bother, bother, bother here). We are great friends who have tons of fun together.

We were supposed to be taking notes on some old writer that was not well known but still had very important works that no one has ever heard of; but I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy talking about something really important, video games.

"Yeah I can't wait for it. It's going to be so awesome."

Aaron replied. I watched at the one headphone he didn't have on dangled from the other one.

"When it comes over we have to have a game night or something like that."

Tyler suggested as, unbeknownst to us, the teacher walked up behind us.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your little conversation, but Aaron you're being called to the office."

The teacher said as he handed Aaron a piece of paper.

"Not again."

Aaron complained as he got up.

"What did you do Aaron?"

Tyler asked.

"Nothing…probably just work tying to get me to come in early. See you later."

Aaron shrugged before rushing out of the room. His work always was calling him out in the middle of school saying they were his parents. Aaron never seems too thrilled about school so he left every time they called. I didn't see Aaron the rest of the day, but it went by pretty fast. The bell rang and we met up at the usual spot.

"So are you sure you don't want a ride?"

Tyler asked as we walked to his mom in the car.

"No thanks, I'd rather not die. I think I'll be safer on foot."

I said. His mom didn't have the best driving record in the world. Even Tyler had to give a nervous snicker at this, because he knew it was true.

"See you later Tyler… I hope."

I said jokingly before setting off for home. I hadn't gotten a ride because my mom had work. I didn't mind going for a walk. I had just moved and still was looking for the fastest way to walk home so I was taking new streets. I sang along with my iPod as I walked to make the time go by faster.

"Link, he comes to town. Come to save the Princess Zelda. Gannon took her away, now the children no play but they will when Link save the day, HALLELUJAH!"

I walked down some strange streets and before I knew it I was in an ally that I had never been in before. I knew where I was supposed to be going and that it might get me there faster, so I went through it.

'I wonder what that smell is.'

I thought to myself as I past a dumpster. As I walked through the alley, a voice came from behind me.

"Hey that's a nice lap top you got there."

There were two thugs walking toward me. I looked around for help, or at least a way out, but I couldn't find anything. To top it off a third person had come from the other direction, although he was shorter than the other two.

'Fuck me'

I thought to myself as I tried to think of a plan. I recognized them. They had gone to my school until they got kicked out. I wasn't going to lose my lap top. I didn't care that it was a piece of shit, it was my lap top. Being a water polo player, I was in very good condition, so I charged at the shortest one to see if I could get away.

My mistake, I might have been able to get away if it weren't for the baseball bat he was holding. I tried to run past him, but I was hit in the face with a crack. I felt my lip split and I fell to the ground. They proceeded to kick me on the ground and take my iPod and left my broken pieces of laptop that had been broken when I fell.

"Oh shit guys, look who it is. It's that fag Stuart."

One laughed as they recognized me.

"Let's go Jay, I'm done with him."

The guy with the bat said as he kicked me again.

"You say anything to the cops and I'll fucking kill you and all your homo friends."

He threatened holding a knife to my neck before leaving. I felt so bad I just ran home. I wasn't sure what I should do. I had been in fights before but never one where I was threatened to be killed. I licked my lip and tasted the salty blood coming from it. I didn't even bother to try to stop it because I didn't care.

I looked around my room for something to distract me and I noticed I had left my TV on from this morning or so I thought. There was something weird about it. I turned it off and lay down on my bed but it turned back on. I sat up and stared at it. It was on with a blank screen that gave off eerie silver glow. I walked up to it to see what was wrong when out of nowhere an arm shot out. I was so startled that I couldn't move and nearly jumped out of my skin at the same time. I fell back hitting my head on the bed post knocking myself out.

A few seconds later I woke up, dazed and confused. I saw a man standing over me as I sat up on my bed. He wore strange clothes and a cape with a collar that wrapped around like a scarf so I couldn't see his face. But the thing that got most of my attention was his eyes. They were like bright red cat eyes.

When he looked at me it was almost like he was looking through me to my soul, as cliché as that may sound. I had no idea who he was or what he wanted. All I knew is I couldn't look away from his eyes. I looked at him and said in the bravest voice I could muster,

"You're not going to rape me are you?"

He just looks at me as everyone does when I say something really stupid (Which happens a lot) and said,

"Really Stuart, really?"

He rolled his eyes and went on

"Stuart I'm here to offer you somthing."

He sounded sincere, and though his eyes looked menacing, he didn't seem to be a bad person… Or whatever he was. Even though I couldn't see his whole face I could tell he was smiling.

"What kind of offer?"

I said, less scared than I probably should be.

"Have you ever dreamed of having adventures with your favorite heroes?"

I looked at him, rubbing my head. I had a rather large lump on it which began to throb.

"Here let me take care of that."

The man said as he pointed his palm at me. A flash of green light made me look away. I continue to rub my head. The lump had disappeared along with my cuts and bruises. I watched the man with a confused face, completely forgetting I was having a conversation with a complete stranger who had no shirt on. He then proceeded to walk over to my movie and game shelf and inspected it with catlike curiosity. He seemed to find something that interested him. He then looked back at me holding a movie in his hands and said,

"So you like Spider-man… interesting. Now can you say you've never wished you could meet him or even... Be him?"

"What are you talking about? How did you do that?"

I asked, a little aggravated, and suddenly I remembered how he came in my room through the TV. He ignored me and said,

"Have you?"

I answered yes because I had and I wanted to get some answers. He then told me that he could go into any story or picture (TV, movie, video game, photo, book, artwork, and anything I may have forgotten as long as it has a story or at least description). This made me worried and almost completely convinced me right there and then to say yes. I asked where he got the power and he said he was a kid like me who was given the power in nearly the same exact way. The next question I asked was why me. He gave me a very strange answer that made me worry. He said that if he didn't make me stronger he along with myself would probably die, but never told me in what way this would save me or from what. From what he saw of me he knew that I would be his successor, not because I had all the right qualities, but that I was meant to have these powers. I really had no choice even if I didn't what the power so I agreed to accept the powers. He then proceeded to tell me the 'You Probably Shouldn't/Should' of the power.

"Number one: Anything and I mean anything that happens in the story happens to you in real life. Like dieing or getting super powers so you probably shouldn't let anything bad happen to you. It like the old saying goes …(tries to think of a old saying but fails to think of one) dieing is not good. The only thing that will go back to normal for you when you end up leaving a story is you will revert to the age you were when you entered it.

Number two: You shouldn't let the characters in the story know they aren't real. They don't seem to take it too well when they learn their whole life is a lie. I'm not saying all of them will freak out on you, but it's best not to try it. Though if you do accidentally let one of them know and they do freak out you have to leave right away and that leads me to

Number three: If you go back into as story you have been to before don't expect anyone to remember you because no human can change a story permanently. It's not as much a rule as a fact because the story will go back to normal after you leave as if nothing had happened.

Number four: To avoid having an awkward situation by make a cover story before you before anything else. Make sure to keep it simple to so the story characters don't ask any complicated questions.

Number five: Immortality is impossible for anyone in the real world. Everything from the real world will die one day and there's nothing that can stop it. You can increase your strength and maybe even make it so you live longer than a normal human but you will die eventually. On another note, you can't bring people back from the dead using stuff you get from a story. The only way for them to come back is if it's their story and it's meant for them to come back. There are certain loop holes in this however but I would avoid trying it,

Number six: Try not to be a villain in a story or become an anti hero. It is more just because it will kinda fuck with your head. It's really up to you to take my advice or not to.

Remember these are not rules, there more like guidelines. I won't force you to follow them but they are for your own safety. Speaking of safety, you really shouldn't bring any one with you or even tell them that you have this power. You could lose them in the story or even get them killed and it will be your fault. That and you don't want the government involved trust me."

I agreed to the rules and he stood me up grabbed my right hand. It went up in what looked like emerald green flame.

"What the fuck?"

I shouted as I saw this. He didn't let go even though I tried to pull my hand back. His hand had a vice like grip on mine and would not let go. I suddenly realized that my hand wasn't burning.

"Sorry for got to warn ya. Don't worry, you'll be fine. This will just take a second."

He chuckled, then, with a bit of a jerk, he let go. I looked at my hand, and even though it was on fire only a second ago, it was fine except for an odd green glow that stayed for a few seconds after.

"I probably should have told you that that was going to happen. Its ok I was just transferring the powers to you. Don't worry your getting out of a lot of hard work because of me."

I looked at him then he asked me,

"So what would you like to do first?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: First Powers

I had completely forgotten about the beating I had just gotten. My eyes went from him to my movies to see what I should go into first. What caught my eye was by the Spider-Man movie he had pulled out just a few minutes ago.

"Well, like you said, I love Spider-Man."

He gave me a look of approval so I started for the movie, but then he grabbed my arm. I was once again confused as I struggled, knowing that I would not be let go until I stopped. He said,

"Have you forgotten The Probably Should number four already?"

"No!"

I lied.

"Fine, then what is it?"

He asked, seeing through me.

"…Have fun?"

I replied. The man simply shook his head and said,

"Your cover story for if anyone asks who you are."

So I said the first thing that came to my head.

"Oh yeah…"

"Ok, I will only do this once, since Peter Parker is a high school student in Queens New York."

"I know that."

I interrupted, making him give me the 'just shut up and let me finish' look.

"So you will just be a new student from there and no one will be the wiser, ok?"

"That's a good one."

I said as he let me go. I started to put it in the DVD player and as I did it he asked,

"So… What you planning to do inside of the movie?"

I hadn't thought of that.

"I don't know."

I said honestly. I was gonna just figure it out as I went along like I normally do.

"Were you just planning on just watching Peter like a normal person? Well more like a stalker, but you know what I mean. That sounds really boring… Hum I have an idea. Why don't you become Spider-Man too? That sounds like it would be kind cool. It shouldn't be that hard. After all, all you have to do is let a tiny little spider bite you."

I looked at him blankly I wasn't sure what he meant. He could tell this so he went on to say,

"Why don't you let the spider bite you so you can become Spider-Man too? That's what I would do. It will give you the same powers as Spider-Man. It seems like doing that would be lots more fun than just trying to watch Peter as you try to make a living in New York. Well at least it seems more fun to me. what's the point of having the power to go into these amassing stories if you can't even participate in them."

I was planning on letting it bite me, but I didn't think of how or if I would let Peter get bitten too. Becoming spider-man always sounded bad ass to me so doing it now was a given.

"Ok that is a good idea. But what do you mean about making a living?"

"Well the world you're going to will be just like this one to you and who knows how long you will be staying? So be prepared to find a place to stay."

He warned making me wonder what might happen if I wasn't able to find a home. But when I saw that the movie had started I forgot about it because I realized I still didn't know how my powers worked. He obviously could tell this.

"Stick your right hand flat on the screen and push."

He told me chuckling so I did. All of a sudden, I felt my hand go through the screen as if it where jelly and I was sucked into the TV. I my hand felt as though it was being pulled by its skin twirling me round and round.

The next thing I knew I was in New York standing right next to Peter Parker on the steps of Oz. Corp labs. No one seemed to notice my sudden appearance so I acted normal. It took me a second to regain focus and realize what was going on. But when I did I became extremely excited as I noticed Peter entering the building.

'Oh my god, he wasn't lying! I'm actually in the Spider-Man movie!'

I thought to myself. I wanted to run around screaming 'weeeee' but resisted the urge.

'What the hell should I do?'

I wondered to myself, still in shock that I was looking at Peter Parker.

'This is so freakin' awesome.'

I thought as I followed the group into the lab. I stayed in back so I didn't attract any attention. As I watched Peter as he started to take photos of MJ I suddenly remembered that this is where he gets bitten, so I stood right next to where he throws the spider off. I watched it come down and bite him. I wasn't sure how this would play out, but I got lucky. He threw it off towards me so I caught it. After being thrown it wasn't too happy so it bit me right away then jumped off. Peter saw this and apologized for throwing it on me. I felt a strange sickness come over me as I walked out of the building. I looked around and relies that the masked man didn't come with me into the movie.

The mixture of being alone and the slowly increasing nausea of the spider venom made me panic. I walked and walked and found myself in Central Park.

"Why do the trees keep moving around like that?"

I muttered as my world began to spin. I walked aimlessly and remembered that I would pass out soon. So I walked to a bench just in time to pass out on it.

The next morning I woke up next to a homeless man who was looking at me like I was a corpse, but I was feeling better than ever.

"Kid you feelin' all right?"

He grumbled,

"I feel great. No, I feel, dare I say… Super?"

I answered, not realizing how lame I sounded until I said it. The homeless man looked at me and said in a raspy voice,

"That's great kid. Now get lost. This is my bench."

I was a little taken aback. I realized I that I must have been there for at least a entire day.

"Um, sorry I took your bench… I'll get going now?"

I said as I ran off, but turned back to ask him something.

"Say, where's the Brooklyn Bridge?"

The homeless man looked at me funny and said,

"Over there."

Then whispered to himself,

"Damn tourists."

I knew where to find Peter Parker's high school in Queens. I had a pretty good idea where it was because of the games I had played but I didn't realize how firkin big New York was. It must have taken half a day but eventually I made it to Queens High School. I arrived right as school was letting out. I soon spotted Peter, who missed the bus, and follow him until he was alone. I called to him,

"Hey Pete come here."

He took a second to find me in the alley and responded in a confused voice,

"Do I know you?"

He said nervously, I replied, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible,

"Yes… I mean no, I mean...Hi my name is Raz. Um I'm the new kid at school and I was wondering did you get bitten by that red and blue spider yesterday too."

I used a made up first name because I didn't know if I should use my real one or not. He looked at me with a concerned glance and told me in an 'I didn't do it' voice,

"Um ... Yeah I did, but why do you ask... What your name was again? Raz?"

"Well, when you threw it off it landed on me and I got bitten too remember."

I said as I showed him the bite mark on my hand.

"I did. I didn't think it bit you. I'm really sorry."

He said, looking like he was expecting me to hit him.

"No worries. That's not why I asked you anyways, have you noticed anything strange happening to yourself? You know like really weird things?"

I asked, acting a little too smug. He gave me an accusatory glance and I said,

"Ok, come here and I will show you."

He walked into the alley. I told him to climb the wall but he just stared and said,

"Are you nuts or something?"

I thought about joking and saying yes but decided against it.

"No, but I do think you should try to do it. I sure you can do it too."

I leaped into the air and onto the wall behind me. I was using my powers for the first time and we shared the same expression of amazement mixed with fear. It felt so strange to be able to stick to walls. It was like having little magnets in my skin that would lose their power when I wanted them to. He didn't run or scream. He just stood there like he was unable to move. I jumped down with a little flip and he said,

"Ca…can I really do that?"

I nodded my head and replied,

"All this and more."

So then he started to follow me up the wall. When we got to the roof I told him about his powers in as little detail as possible, so not to seem like I knew everything. I even let him figure out the way to shoot web.

That had to be the strangest feeling out of all the new things I could do. It was like nothing I could describe. The closest thing to it is another fluid that comes out, but I won't go over that. That day Peter and I just messed around with our powers, talking about random things. When it got late I went my own way and he went home. That night was extremely cold. I spent it in an abandoned building.

I made sure to get up early so I could show up at the school. He came to me the next day to show me the wrestling match thing. He said that we should both try out, so we did. We entered as a pair. The only reason they let us was we were so small they thought it would make it fairer for us. We took Bone Saw out within fifteen seconds, but the manager didn't give us the money. He said,

"The rules say the man, not men, to defeat Bone Saw will get the money."

When he was robbed I let him go, even though I knew he was going to kill Peter's Uncle Ben. I didn't want to do that to Pete, but if I didn't let him die he wouldn't have any reason to become a hero. (Nothing like a tragedy to spark the birth of a hero) If I changed that there might not be a Spider-Man. Sad as it was, I had to do it, even though I felt terrible. When we finished and found him dead Peter and I both went to get the killer. Peter was the first to find him, and like in the movie, he killed him on accident.

I soon realized the old man never told me how to leave the movie, so I was stuck in it until I figured out how to leave. I would have been fucked if it wasn't for Peter's Aunt May. She let me stay with them because I told them my parents had died and I was an orphan who refused to live in foster care. Not one of my best stories but it worked. I stayed with Peter for the last week of school, acting like I was going to classes when I was out stopping thugs with a ski mask on to protect my identity.

A month passed and I moved in with Harry and Peter. I had to grow up a little bit from my childish attitude but. We had both gotten costumes (Still don't know from where) and had been superheroes for two and a half weeks. I also got a job as a singer for a jazz bar like MJ does in the third movie to help pay for stuff. We worked as partners and as independents at the same time, patrolling the city and stopping crimes that happened. We didn't really need to help each other to much because the only people we fought where normal people.

I had many encounters with normal thugs, but I still remember the first one which an actually put my life on the line. It was a simple mugging, but this time was different. I was swinging around just patrolling the city when I saw him running with a purse.

"My fashion sense is tingling!"

I said to myself as I swung down to his level and landed in front of him.

"Excuse me sir, I will have to write you a ticket and confiscate that purse, because it does not go with that outfit."

I said as I landed in front of the thief, who looked very confused,

"Unlucky for you I'm an officer for the fashion police, as you can see with my stunning red tights and tough looking blue spider sweater with the sleeve ripped… on purpose."

I said condescendingly to the thug.

"Damn, it's the spider."

He said as he looked at me. I hoped he wouldn't want to put up a fight, but I was wrong. He raised his hand and pulled the trigger to a handgun. Luckily, my spider sense went off in time to warn me. I dogged the shots, making the bullets hit the wall behind me.

"Holy fuck man I was just kidding, I'm not really with the fashion police."

I said, still keeping my composure even though I was scared shitless that he had a gun. I thought fast and webbed the gun in his hand. He shot it but it backfired and he fell down crying because it hurt his hand. I returned the purse to the woman who wasn't sure if I was a good guy. Then I took the man who had passed out to the hospital and they took him to the police after that. It was funny because I saw him a week later robbing a convenience store and I recognized him.

"Hey it's the Anti Fashion Sense Man! How's it going?"

I said and he instantly dropped to the ground and surrendered. Fighting crime was like second nature to me now and I had mastered my spider powers, but that didn't stop me from missing my family and all my friends. But I had given up the hope that I was ever going to see the man in the cloak and be taken home. So I started a new life. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help but remember my old one and miss it.

They came the day when the Green Goblin showed up. I was caught by surprise because I forgot that it was going to happen. Parker and I fought him off but I under estimated him because up until now we had just been fighting thugs. I knew we had to stop Osborne but I didn't want to tell Peter I knew that it was Harries father. I was more than tempted on more than one occasion, but knew I wouldn't be able to explain how I knew it was him. So I decided to try to take him out by myself because I might be able to save him from himself with my knowledge of Spider-Man. All I had to do was find him, which wasn't too hard considering he was looking to fight us again. By now he knew that Peter and I were the heroes and was going to kidnap MJ, but this time I was waiting for him. It was my first planned out fight and I was really nervous. I had gotten MJ to go out by saying Peter wanted to talk to her. I was waiting in the darkness of Miss Apartment when I heard the familiar sound of the bat glider coming to welcome me. I was ready for it. The window shattered with a bang and in came Osborne cackling like a madman.

"Miss Watson we have a date with an old friend of yours...Miss Watson?"

I was hanging on the ceiling, watching as he looked at the bed, confused.

"What... no flowers? That's a terrible way to start a date."

I said as I sprang my trap. I webbed his glider to the floor then kicked him out of the window down to the street below.

"Sorry, but Miss Watson has other plans for tonight. But I'm free. Just don't expect to get any tongue on a first date!"

I said as he got back up and jumped into the room to get the glider unstuck. There was an abandoned hotel not too far from the apartment that would be safe to fight in. I wasn't going to let him destroy the town. I only had a little time to swing to the hotel before he got his glider unstuck. I barely got to the building before he got me from behind and knocked me through the wall. I was a little shook up when I got to my feet and had to avoid being decapitated by his glider by doing the whole Matrix thing.

I ran into the center of the building so he had to leave his glider and come after me on foot. I was just missing his pumpkin bombs as he threw them at me. I wasn't as strong as him but I was definitely more agile. He threw a bat-a-rang thing at me, so I webbed it up and threw it back at him, knowing that he would avoid them. This gave me an opportunity to retaliate.

He rolled to the left to avoid them, and with his attention on the blades, I rushed to get in front of him. I got him with a jumping upper cut to the jaw. I landed on the ceiling and he was knocked to the ground. When he tried to get back to his feet, I webbed his hands to the ground, and as I came down from the ceiling, I landed on his head his head smashing it into the ground. I was out of breath and felt light headed. He lay there breathing heavily, but didn't move. I had hit him hard enough to knock him out. I walked over to an old chair to relax. I had saved Osborne's life, or so I thought. I hadn't hit him hard enough, because he had gotten up and hit me before I could react to my spider sense. I was thrown against a wall by an explosion and knocked unconscious.

I awoke to Peter kneeling before the body of Osborne who was pinned to the wall by his own glider. A stream of scarlet blood poured from his wounds. I had not seen death before except for the carjacker, but at least he didn't seem to have any injuries when he fell to his death.

I wasn't sure what to say. I had failed even though I tried to save Peter from having to kill Osborn. I was going to go up to him and try to comfort him when I felt a hand on my shoulder keeping me from going on. I turn to find see the cloaked man. I stare at him as if he was an illusion then he said,

"He will be fine. It's time to go home."

I felt the same feeling as when I first entered into the movie, and then I was standing right next to him in my room.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: The Secret to Badassary

I just stood there, not daring to move for fear this was a dream. I was home. I looked at the clock, I was only gone for an hour and a half, but in the movie world I was gone for a little less than a year. I looked blankly at the cloaked Man and began to yell at him.

(I still wanna smack the guy for leaving me like that.)

"Where the hell were you? I can't believe you left me there alone! I thought you were going to come with me and help! But NOOOO you had to scare the crap out of me and make me think was stuck in the movie forever!"

He stopped me before I could continue and said,

"I had to see if you were really ready to have these powers. You can think of that as a test to see if you were responsible enough."

"A test, why the fuck did you let me think I wasn't going to be stuck in there! And why didn't you come to help?"

"I had to see what you would without knowing you were being watched. By the way, I have made my decision."

He said scratching his head and looking blankly at the ceiling with his blood red cat eyes.

"Ok? What now? Do I keep them or get them taken away? What happens?"

I said, still irritated that I was stuck in there for so long. My body had gone back to the same age like he had said it would. I knew this because I was about six inches shorter then I had been. I could tell this because my spider suit was too big on me.

"Well there were lots of times were I could see you wanted to tell them the things that you knew, but you stuck to the rules even after you gave up on going home. So you pass."

He said acting a little more childish than he first seemed. It was like he knew exactly what I was going to say.

"So I get to keep them, ok what now?"

"It's up to you. The powers are all yours to do what you see fit with. Well, it's time for me to go. Any last questions you got before I leave?"

He asked, getting up to walk to the TV.

"Yeah I do… I forgot to ask before, but who are you and how will I find you if I need you?"

I questioned, still not knowing who he was.

"You will find out in time, I don't want to ruin the surprise. Just know you don't have to worry, not yet at least. Just don't break any of the 'you probably shouldn't / should rules, ok? And when you truly need me, I'll be there."

He said before attempting to leave. I stopped him to ask

"Wait what's your name?"

He paused for a moment and answered

"You can call me Trace. See you in about three."

He muttered before leaving. I wondered about what he meant by three and the name seemed to be easy to remember and somewhat familiar. Then he disappeared into the TV. A glaring red cat eye was the last thing I saw of him. I still had questions for him, but he was gone. I was overwhelmed still so I did what seemed to calm me down the best when I was stressing in the movie, sit on the ceiling and think. Then it hit me. I was still Spider-man and I had to get a new costume. My scarlet spider suit from the movie was ruined, so I thought for a little bit and came up with the idea. All that time in Spider-Man and I never saw my favorite character Venom. I had wanted to try the alien suit out to see if I could control it and there was my answer for new cloths. The venom's suit from the spider-man comics.

After thinking about it for a little while, I just got a picture of a black blob and wrote what it was. One of the few things the man taught me before I entered the movie that I could make stuff depending on my creativity. I had to write what I wanted so it wouldn't just be a black blob when I took it out of the picture. Now if you don't know what the venom suit is an alien symbiote that acts like an all in one utility suit. It was good idea but I would have to tweak it so it would be safe.

I wrote for the first line. I continued to write down more specifics. I read out what I had written to double-check it,

"It is living suit that is very similar to the one in Spider-man. It differs from the alien suit in Spider-Man in the fact that it does not have a mind of its own and is driven by the need to live. Its reason for helping you is it needs a body to live on because it needs one to survive. The suit has the power to raises your abilities such as strength, speed, agility based on your physical traits and mental personality. Your senses like hearing sight and smell are also increased but not to super human. It also makes you much less vulnerable to physical injury by taking much of the blows like a bullet proof vest. It lives on your body and can change to any color and form that you want it to mimicking any fabrics texture and look. It will bond to your body and live with you as part of you."

I looked at what it said and decided to give it another power that it didn't have before.

"As an added ability it can take certain traits or powers from people by physical contact. Whether they be physical or magical attributes."

I know this would make me a little over powered but hey it was my life I had to protect, but I didn't make it's a invincible super armor because well to be quite honest I'm a cock bastard I was really specific so that I didn't get an evil venom suit. Then, when I was finished, I reached into the picture and pulled out the ooze in my hand. It felt like a writhing mass of slime as it sped around my body. It engulfed my whole body, cutting off all my senses. I couldn't see, smell, hear, or even breathe. I started to panic, but I couldn't move I thought I was going to suffocate.

'Shit what have I done to myself!'

I thought as I struggled to break free. But suddenly, the suit started breathing for me. I still couldn't move or anything else, but I wasn't going to die now. It was about 15 seconds before I started to regain my sight little by little. I felt relieved that I was gaining control of my body. It took about a minute before I had full control of my body again. I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror.

I was basically naked but covered in black ink, even my eyes were covered up. It felt as though I was wearing nothing at all. I just imagined myself in the black and white Spider-man suit. It looked really cool, but I didn't think it would work in anything but the Spider-man stories so I thought of some other costume ideas. I just messed around with it, making me wear different clothes. I was able to make it any shape, texture, color, and even change my outward appearance like eye or hair color. It reminded me of the line from the movie Men in Black.

'The last suit you will ever wear.'

I was looking around my room for ideas on a costume when I saw the Devil May Cry poster with Dante standing in his red coat. I thought of how most anime and video game heroes wear a red trench coat (Dante, Alucard, Ed and Al Elric, Vincent, Vash, Auron and many others) but wanted to have a little twist on it. I made my suit do a variation of Dante's suit with black at the bottom and red like his at the top. It changed to what I had envisioned and it even made my hair nice and neat though I quickly screwed it up after seeing it made me look like a girl. I walked around with my new clothes and looked at myself in the mirror.

"Very nice, a little flashy for the real world, but it will be perfect for most situations I will get myself into."

I marveled at my costume to myself as I flexed and posed in my mirror. Giving it a little more minor details here and there such as pockets and straps.

'I'm such an attention whore'

"Stuart, what are you wearing?"

My mom asked as she walked into my room.

"Um, it's a costume for this thing."

I blurted out, not expecting her at all.

"What? Never mind come down, dinners ready?"

She told me as she walked downstairs. I followed her down and had dinner. I was too tired to go anywhere else, so I went to bed. I had a crazy dream I was still stuck in the Spider-Man world and had become the Man-Spider. I awoke to find I still only had two arms thankfully. I was very energetic the next day with my new suit boosting my powers. It seemed to slow the world down for me (Which sucks for a long day of school). Having powers was potently dangerous without control. I could feel that the suit was enhancing nearly every aspect of my powers and abilities, some more than others. I was worried about getting too much power, like my speed. For some reason I had at least quadrupled my speed, I even thought faster so I could control myself at high speeds. I would have to make sure I didn't try to move fast, even though it made me feel like I was walking in slow motion.

I would have to be very careful so I didn't let anyone find out about my secret. It was great to be home and see all my friends even though in real life it was only a day since I saw them last. They were very confused when I came up to them and gave them all hugs and told them I missed them. I was feeling at home and starting to get bored again with everyday life. I really wanted to try my suits powers out though I was in California so I didn't have any were to web swing. It was a week and a half later that I decided it was time to have some fun in another story.

"You're acting kinda weird today Stuart. You know that?"

Tyler said as he sat with me at lunch. Aaron still hadn't come back to school.

"Really?"

I said, as if I hadn't been daydreaming about where I should go next.

"I guess I'm just tired."

I mumbled quickly, because that's the fake excuse I always use. A day had never gone by so slowly in my life. I finally had gotten home, but I still didn't know where I was going to go next. It didn't take me long to decide that I would go into Devil May Cry, seeing as my clothes already matched the story. I needed to get weapons for future adventures and I always wanted Dante's guns and one of his swords, because he always had some of the coolest weapons. (Talking swords, triple nunchucks, ) So I put the game in, and hopped in as soon as the intro movie started.

There was a problem though I didn't appear outside of Dante's shop Devil May Cry. I looked around and realized that I was in what looked like New York again. It wasn't really the place was just called City of Devils I would find out later. My first thoughts were

'Hey cool everything is realistic. It doesn't look like the game at all.'

This meant that everything I went in would look like the real world does. I wondered what cartoons would be like until I realized I didn't know where I was.

'Hey where's Dante's shop?'

Was my second thought as I walked down a street. I had no idea what went wrong. I sat and thought for a while and came up with conclusion that I had entered when it was showing a view of the city. I was angry that I had so impassioned. I had no idea where or when I had entered the game. I should have waited, and now I was going to have to find his shop and hope he was there.

It took a long time before I found any one who even knew about Dante's place but even they were useless. I continued to ask around, until after about five hour of asking, I got irritated and had to stop.

"Why the fuck doesn't anyone know where Devil May Cry is?"

I said out loud to myself as I sat in an alley, after the second day on the street looking for it not wanting to get any ones attention. But I wasn't alone in the alley. A man dressed in a suit came out of the shadows and said with a smug smile,

"So you're looking for Dante, are you?"

His voice seemed to hiss with every word. I perked up at his words getting excited, and replied,

"Yeah I am. Do you know where he is or maybe where his shop is?"

The man looked at me and smiled before he said,

"Yes I do, it's about several blocks down and three to the left."

I stood up and began to thank him when my spider sense made the back of my neck tingle. I looked around but I couldn't see any danger. I was very confused I couldn't help but wonder what would be making my Spidey sense go off like this. Was I losing control of my powers from being in a new story or something? Then the man started to snicker, and then he spoke.

"You can stop thanking me now… It doesn't matter that you know where it is, because you'll never make it there. Not in one piece at least."

I looked at the man in disbelief as his skin began to stretch and tear. I stepped back as the last of his skin fell to the ground.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing; where the man stood was a seven-foot tall scaly monster with two heads. It had an over sized jaw to fit its enormous teeth. It smiled a wicked smile as drool pored out of its mouth.

'Man, I gotta stop going into back allies.'

I thought as it leaped forward, its razor sharp claws out stretched. I leaped back onto the wall behind me, several feet above the monsters head. But when I jumped off, the monsters long, scaly tail hit me into a fire escape, making the whole thing come crashing down on me. I was winded from the blow, but I couldn't stop because it was coming at me again with its twisted smile. I barely managed dodge it, but luckily this time its claw got stuck in the wall, which gave me enough time to catch my breath. I covered it a thick sheet of web, but it didn't work. The monster broke the bindings with little trouble and stood there with its evil smile. With another leap it tore at my chest leaving claw marks and knocking me against the broken wall. I really wished I had more experience fighting super villain t this time.

"So you have a few tricks. It's too bad they won't stop me devouring your flesh!"

It sat there and cocked its heads at me. It was kinda like a cat playing with a mouse. It crouched down then jumped for me. The cuts on my chest were still open even though my suit tried desperately to heal me. I closed my eyes and grabbed the closest thing to me that I could use as a weapon and raised it up. Everything went quiet. I sat on the ground with my arm raised for a few seconds, not realizing what I had done. Warmth then stared to cover my hand then my arm.

I looked at my hands, which held a steel pipe from the fallen latter of the fire escape. It was piercing the monsters head through one of its mouth's that dripped a mixture of its and my blood. Its teeth had just barely made it through my suit. I pulled my hand out of its mouth and it dropped to the ground with a thud. I stood there, my heart racing as my suit began to heal the bite marks and cleanse my clothes of blood.

It took me a little while to calm myself down and regain my composure. I looked back at the monster that lay in a pool of its own blood. Seeing it dead shook off any fear I might have had left. I turned to leave, but I heard a gargling noise. It was the other head. It was moving a little, but blood was pouring out its eyes. Not sensing any danger, I walked up to it and got right next to it.

"Thanks for the directions, but I got to go."

I growled before tearing the pipe out of its head, only to stab the other head. I set off to the directions the monster had given me. I swung from building to building until saw the bright neon sign.

"Devil May Cry."

I read out loud as I landed on the street in front of the building. It was bigger than I thought. I walked to the door to knock, but the door opened as I touched it.

"Hello, any one here?"

I said into the empty room as I peered inside, but there was no answer.

"Um... Dante, you there?"

I said as I walked in, but I still got no reply. I looked around the room and saw what a mess it was.

'I guess no one's here…'

I thought to myself as I sat down at the desk, wondering what to do next. After about an hour of waiting I grew bored and decided to look around. First I looked into the two rooms in the very back, which ended up being just a bathroom and a back exit. Next I walked up the small set of stairs to the left and entered a door, which led to a hallway. There were two more doors, one that led to an even messier room that had Dante's bed, and the other had a rather large room that seemed like it hadn't had any one in it for a while. Plus it was the only clean room in the place, which made it even stranger.

I walked in and turned on the lights to see a wall of weapons, which included multiple swords including Rebellion, Agni and Rutra, one rocket launcher, two double barrel sawed off shot guns and a older looking set of Dante's trademark duel Desert Eagles, Ebony and Ivory. The only weapon I didn't see that I liked was Nevan, the demonic guitar scythe, but it really didn't matter because I wanted a sword.

I looked around the room and saw all kinds of other items, but I didn't know what they were. It was a long room with a wall separating it. Then I realized that I was in a firing range, and the reason it was so clean was Dante must never need to come in there. I looked at the shelf of weapons and decided to have a little fun while I waited.

I looked at each weapon trying to decide what to try first, and the pair of white and black guns jumped out at me (not literally). I reached out and grabbed them. They were much lighter than I had anticipated, and they seemed to fit my hand perfectly. I twirled them, mimicking what I had seen Dante do, but I nearly dropped them so I stopped. I walked over to the firing range and squeezed the trigger. The gun clicked, but nothing happened.

"What?"

I said as I raised the gun to look for a clip, but I could not find one or even a place where one would go.

'Why won't this work?'

I wondered I suddenly felt my head start to buzz as my spider sense went off. My body ducked on its own just as a bullet whizzed past my head.

"So what do we have here, a burglar messing with my stuff or a demon with a death wish?"

I turned to see Dante, who was pointing his guns straight at me.

"I'm not a demon!"

I said rising, my hands that held Ebony and Ivory; but doing so made Dante shoot at me again.

"Yeah right, I can smell demon all over you."

I dove behind a crate away from his bullets.

"I give up just don't kill me. It's not me you smell."

I said as Dante stopped firing, so I put the guns down just outside of the half demolished crate.

"My name's Stuart and I have been looking for you. You weren't at the front desk so I came in to look for you."

I said from raising my hands not wanting to stick my head out.

"Oh really now, then why do I smell fresh blood in here?"

Dante said, but before I could reply the shadows seemed to jump out and swallowed him up. He couldn't get out of the bubbling blackness. He grunted as he tried to escape, but it had removed his pair of guns and his sword and thrown them to the ground. It was a nightmare demon that sucks you into it until you die or you can break free. I ran for the gun shelf but it cut me off, nearly catching me in it. I was right next to Dante's weapons on the ground. I reached for Alastor, but as I was about to touch it, time seemed to freeze and a voice came out of nowhere.

"I am Alastor. The weak shall give their heart and swear their eternal loyalty to me. Only one has proven worthy of wielding me."

And all of the sudden the sword shot up from the ground at my chest but I grabbed it in mid-air. I held it by the blade. It was cutting deep into my hands. The only thing stopping it from cutting my hands in half was the venom suit. I could feel my warm blood pouring down them, but I couldn't let it go because it continued to try to pierce through my chest, as if someone was holding it. I gritted my teeth and forced it into the ground, grabbing the handle and swinging it at the nightmare that had nearly reached me. The sword didn't seem to want to let me wield it until I finally sliced into the monster.

It was cut in half, releasing Dante who was extremely pissed off. He took his father's sword, Rebellion from the shelf and started to cut away at it. I backed up, still holding Alastor my blood dripping down it as he finished it off. Dante stopped and looked at me for a second, raised his gun and fired. I didn't move, but nothing happened to me. Then a thud came from behind me. He shot the demon from the alleyway that apparently had not been killed. The demons bodies slowly deteriorated into dust.

"You ok kid?"

Dante asked to me as he put his hand on my shoulder. I then had an idea to use the suits power to take copy powers from people. I could use it to get a little of Dante's strength. As he touched my shoulder I focused and I felt my suit changing my body in some way. It didn't hurt, but I could feel something happening inside of me, like my blood was warming up. My suit, being a sentient, being spoke to me threw telepathy. The symbiote said that to acquire Dante's power it gave me the half demon blood of Sparda, (Dante's devil father) which is what gives Dante his powers.

"Kid, are you ok? How are your hands?"

Dante repeated.

"Um, I'm fine but what do you mean my hands…"

I said, confused. But when I looked at my at them I saw that they were covered in my blood. Holding the sword back from killing me had left two huge gashes in my palms, but I had not noticed because of the adrenaline. My blood was trickling down the blade, and I heard the voice once again.

"You have proven yourself to be worthy of wielding my power… My strength is now yours to command. May it serve you well… master."

It was the sword talking to me, or rather, the demon that lived inside of it. It tingled in my hands that had just started to heal themselves.

"You gonna be ok? Need a Band-Aid or something?"

Dante asked looking at my bleeding hands that had already half healed themselves. They stung but I didn't wanna seem like a wuss.

"No I should be fine in a couple of seconds."

I muttered as I showed him they were healing. My suit was pouring into the wound using its self to replace my skin. He looked at the sword in my other hand.

"Looks like that's yours now."

Dante said as he walked into the main room.

"What do you mean mine?"

I asked as I followed Dante into the next room.

"It chose you over me, didn't you hear it? It's a very particular sword and I really don't feel like getting stabbed in the chest again just so I can use it. It really doesn't matter to me anyways, keep the thing. I got enough swords."

He yawned as if nothing happened.

"Oh thanks but sorry I think I broke your spare guns. When I tried to shoot them it didn't shoot and I don't know how you load these things."

I told him apologetically.

"It won't work because you need devil blood for it to work. It's complicated, but essentially the bullets are made from my demon powers. But if you like them so much you can keep em. They are my old pair and I don't need them either. Think of those and the sword as me paying you back for me shooting at you."

He said as he walked to his desk. I thought he must have felt bad for shooting at me but later on I found out he's not the most responsible guy in the world when it comes to safety. It was either that or he didn't want to get sued. What Dante didn't realize was they would work now because I had the same blood as him. I was surprised because within a few days I had gotten my own sword and guns just as planned. Though I had no experience using them and would need to get some training from Dante, because he is the only one I know of who is good enough to teach me and have me look cool doing it. I honestly thought it would take at least a week of asking Dante for some of my own weapons after I got him to help me… if I could get him to help me. I guess I got lucky because I didn't even really have any idea what I was going to say to Dante when I met him in the first place.

"Anyway, what was so important that you had to break in my shop for, as you can see, I'm a busy man?"

Dante replied casually sitting in his chair and putting a book over his face to take a nap. I looked at the sword and wiped it off with a dirty towel I found on the ground. I felt accomplished because I had won the sword's respect instead of having it just be given to me. It was much lighter than I had expected for such a large sword.

"I came to talk to you actually."

I said, not really sure what to say.

"Well obviously kid, what is it that you wanted to talk about? And before you start, don't tell me you can't pay. I don't work for free ya know."

"Ok I won't tell you I don't have any money. Actually I was going to see if you could … um how do I put this? Teach me how to fight."

This caught Dante's attention, but in a bad way.

"I'm no teacher kid. I paid you back for almost killing you, even though you are the one who broke into my place. And now you're asking for more free stuff. Find someone else. I don't have time to baby sit some kid."

Dante complained as he put the magazine over his face again.

"But you…"

"I said no kid. Now stop wasting my time. You can't even pay me, now get out be for I make you. You caused me enough trouble already. Plus now you're interrupting my nap."

Dante sat up and looked at me coldly.

"Fine, fine I'm going but I'll be back."

And I left the shop hearing Dante say.

"You better bring me money if you expect a different answer."

I went to the top of a building across from Devil May Cry and stood there, watching. I took Alastor off my back and swung it a few times. Electricity issued from the blade as it cut through the air.

"Hehe cool."

I said as I watched the light show. I put it away and pulled out Dante's old pair of Ebony and Ivory. I pulled the trigger and this time the muzzle flashed with a loud BANG. The guns would now work now that I had Dante's power.

But I was stumped when I tried to use my other new powers. I couldn't turn into a devil like Dante, no matter what I did. Even my suit couldn't help me. It was able to take the powers not tell me how to use them. That's the down side of having it have not mind of its own.

"So what you doing all the way up here?"

It was a women standing behind me. I turned to see Trish standing there. Trish is a devil made by the bad guy in this game, but she ends up becoming good. The only question now was weather she good or bad right now.

"I could ask you the same thing babe."

I snickered, cockier than normal as I kind of posed to try to make myself look cool. It seemed that I picked up a little of Dante's arrogance along with his power.

"Ha, your cute kid, but don't call me babe. If you must know, I was going to visit Dante, the owner of that shop. Now then it's your turn."

Trish smiled as she walked to the edge. Until now I still had no real idea what part of the game I was in, so I thought I would find out.

"You know Dante or you have a job for him too?"

It was a second before she replied.

"I know Dante very well…. We kinda work together until a few days ago when we split up. I assume you know what he does if you have a job for him."

I must have entered near the ending scene of the game.

"So what is this job you have for him?"

Trish went on.

"I was looking to have him teach me how to fight. I'm a devil hunter in training, but I still need practice. I'm still not use to fighting such vicious enemies. But when I asked him he said no because I couldn't pay him."

I shrugged

"You a devil hunter, aren't you a little young kiddo?"

"I've killed two already."

I boasted proudly even though Dante technically killed the both of them.

"Wow two, that's impressive."

Trish said mockingly.

"Hey, I didn't have any weapons at the time so it was a little hard especially since it was my first time."

But as I finished my sentence my spider sense went off as a reaper came out of nowhere and swung his scythe at us. I flipped over it kicking it in the back of the head causing it to fall. I landed next to Trish who had her guns drawn, as a half a dozen more reapers appeared screaming at us.

"It looks like we have a few uninvited guests. Let's see what you got kid."

Trish said as I pulled Alastor from my back. It tingled in my hand. I had never used a sword before other than playing with toy light sabers.

"Ok why not I was getting bored anyways."

I was ready this time and was actually excited for the fight. Two reapers came charging at me but I jumped over them landing on the reaper I had just kicked. It was getting up but before it could stand I sliced it into pieces. The next one came at me from a portal behind me. I parried its scythe then stabbed it in the head. My blade sparked with every swing. I was having fun, even though I was putting my life on the line.

"Come on, what's the matter?"

I taunted the remaining reapers. I had already been a smart ass when fighting in Spider-man, but it seemed to get worse because of taking Dante's power. I landed on the ground in front of the closest Reaper, trying to anger it into charging. But before I knew it one came from behind me and stuck its scythe threw my back. I looked down at my chest and saw a blade sticking out of it. It was strange having something go through my chest and having it not kill me. I felt one of my lungs collapse and it hurt to breathe. I still hurt like a bitch but I couldn't stop now.

I put Alastor away on my back having my suit hold it there. The way I put it away cut the scythes blade off. It was starting to sting more and more so I pulled it out threw my chest and watched as the wound healed twice as fast as normal, even though I should have died. But I had no time to wonder how I was alive. I threw the blade like a boomerang cutting another reapers arm off. I began to play with the remaining reapers jumping off of them and making them hurt each other making sure not to stand still any more. I pulled out my new guns and grinned at the three remaining reapers.

"Trish you want to join me? You look pretty bored just sitting over there watching."

I said to Trish, who had gone to another building to watch me. She jumped to my building again and said,

"How thoughtful of you."

By now the left most reaper had started to charge, but I raised my gun without looking and squeezed the trigger, shooting it right were its eye would be and making the skull explode.

"Look now there's one for each of us."

I said still not looking away from Trish.

"What you only give me one? I could take them both out at the same time."

"Really? Then go right ahead."

She turned and jumped behind the two demons, making them turn to follow her, but she raised her arms and shot two huge bolts of lightning threw the reapers heads, making them fall to the ground. I was amazed at her power of electricity and I wanted it.

"Nice job."

She said as I walked up to her.

"Likewise."

I replied.

"So what's your name kid?"

She asked me.

"I'm Stuart."

I raised my hand offering her a handshake so I could take the power of lightning. I focused on the thought of having her lighting and it seemed to work. Once again, the suit told me what it was taking. But unlike Dante, my body didn't change; it just imbued me with the power of lighting so I wouldn't have any of her personality.

"I'm Trish. You got talent but you are right you do need training. But I think I can help you with Dante. I think know a way around this no money problem of yours."

"Thanks, but before you tell me that could you tell me how your power work?"

I asked.

"What? You mean my lightning? I just will it to happen."

So I imagined shooting a bolt of lightning out of my hand and it happened but not quit as strong as Trish.

"You mean like that?"

After explaining that I can sample people's powers, she then went on to tell me what she meant by helping me with Dante, but before we could go back to his shop he came to us.

"I thought I'd find you hear kid, but I didn't expect to see you any time. What was the gunfire about? You weren't having fun without me were yeah?"

Dante said looking at the dead bodies that began to smolder.

"No, they were just small fry."

Trish replied.

"So did you have to save the kid too?"

Dante asked as he looked at me.

"No he did most of the work. Looks like your weapons helped him quite a bit."

Trish said walking over to me, patting my back.

"Really now? Hmm… Guess the runt has a few tricks up his sleeve."

He said as if I wasn't standing right in front of him.

"Dante I was just talking to Stuart and I heard he's looking to become a hunter himself. Why don't you teach him a few things?"

"No way babe, like I told the kid, I'm no teacher. I got enough to worry about without some kid. Anyways I'm still busy trying to pay Lady's debt off and this kid can't even pay me."

Dante argued as he turned to leave, seeing that the fun had ended. I wasn't just going to leave the game with weapons I really had no skill with and new powers I didn't entirely understand. I had to say something

"Dante,"

He turned and said,

"Yeah kid?"

"Instead of teaching me how about you give me a job. I won't take any profit and you could get twice the work done. And I can learn from experience. I will take all the crap jobs without complaining either."

Dante seemed interested.

"What's the catch?"

Dante said suspiciously.

"I need a place to live. I'm homeless, but I can also help around the shop. All I ask is that you let me go on a few missions with you first to see how it's done."

"Come on Dante help the kid out."

Trish added in giving Dante a pout. Dante stopped to think for a little while then said,

"Fine, I can see you won't quit, so you can stay at my place and I'll let you work for me, but if you start to cramp my style you're out. Got me? Now let's go, there are a few things we need to go over before I take you on a mission and have you staying at my place."

Dante said as he reached the edge of the building.

"Later babe."

He waved to Trish before jumping off the side.

"See you later. Have fun."

Trish said before disappearing into the night.

"Thanks for the help."

I said to Trish before I jumped down and walked to the shop. Dante was sitting in his chair waiting for me.

"So your name is Stuart. 'Kay Stuart, I have a few rules you will have to follow if you're going to be staying here. Rule one; don't wake me up unless it is an emergency…I mean it. Rule two, don't go in my room. Rule three, and this one is very important, no complaining about work I make you do. Follow those three rules and we will be fine. Oh yeah, and I get first dibs on the last slice of pizza."

Then the phone rang, so Dante did his little kick to the table, making the phone pop up into the air. He grabbed it and answered

"Devil May Cry… Yes….. Yeah…. Got it. Well it looks like your getting your first job a little earlier than expected."

So Dante and I left the shop to some place in the city were we met a man who was having problems with a group of demons that had been terrorizing the building. Dante and I spent the night in a nice room of the building. We took care of the monster, but destroyed the hotel room in the process. It went on like this for months, getting jobs, me learning to use my weapons. Dante even showed me how to use my devil powers after finding out I had the same bloodline as him. I learned the trick to the devil trigger and how I could survive most injuries, although if you cut out my heart or tore off my head it would still kill me instantly. I felt a little overpowered with healing though it did have its limits. I couldn't re-grow anything that I might lose and every time I used the healing part my energy would be sapped as if I ran a marathon.

He also taught me some of his special techniques (Gunslinger, Sword master, Royal guard, and Trickster). I mastered my favorite of the four tricksters. I loved being able to dance around the monsters with little to no effort while taunting them. Dante had changed too, he become less antisocial and even started to call me by name. I was just walking around one day when Dante was out on a mission with Trish somewhere in the countryside when I saw a ball of fire being shot into the air, knocking a hotel to the ground. I ran to the spot that people were running from. I heard lowed voices that sounded inhuman.

"Where is the one who killed our father!"

One voice shouted shaking the buildings around me.

"Where is the son of Sparda!"

Now I knew what they wanted and knew I would have to clean up his mess.

"Bring us Dante!"

I arrived to see three giant spiders that looked familiar. I realized that they must be related to Phantom, the boss Dante killed at the island.

"My, my, my, what have we here? Don't you know it's rude not to say please when asking for something? How can you expect anyone to listen to you if you act so inconsiderate?"

I shouted at the spiders as I took a bite from my pizza, making the three spiders stop the rampage to find who would dare to insult them. I was standing on top of a flagpole waiting for them to see me, but they couldn't seem to spot me. They were obviously not too bright.

"Yo, up here!"

I yelled, getting irritated, making them look at me. All eighteen eyes glared at me.

"So you say you're looking for Dante, well that's too bad because he's not here, but I would be happy to play with you… that is if you can catch me."

I looked at them, then jumped on an abandoned crotch rocket and sped off. I could only see one of them following me, but it could barely keep up. I was leading them to an old condemned building sight that had no surrounding structures, so no one would get hurt. The spider that was chasing me was soon joined by a second when we reached the building. I ditched the bike and climbed half way up, sticking my sword in the side to have something to stand on. They, however, stayed on the ground and looked at me.

"What's the matter? Can't climb? Or are you just afraid of heights?"

I laughed to the monstrous arachnids as they sat there, looking at me. It shot a ball of fire at me but I leaned back a little to avoid it.

"Come on! Is your aim really that bad?"

I said to the spider, which seemed to be getting more and more frustrated, when all of the sudden a crash came from above me. The third spider had climbed from the other side and jumped down at me, but the reason my spider sense did not go off was a rocket had hit it in mid-air, knocking it aside. I followed the smoke trail to see a silhouette of a woman with a rocket launcher.

It was Lady, whom I had met when she came for money or help with a job. She was on her bike racing towards the fight. The third spider got back to its feet and came back up the building. I kicked down on my sword, which made a crack crawl up the wall. The side of the building started to crumble and fall on to the spiders below. I jumped from piece to piece, getting higher and higher until an enormous chunk of the building came down, taking the advancing spider with it. It was crushed beneath it nearly half of the building, which Lady used as a ramp to get to my level. She landed in the exposed room I stood in and got off her bike.

"Hey Stu you know where Dante is?"

She said as she looked at me.

"What's up Lady? Yeah he went on a job a little while ago. By the way thanks for the assist."

I said as peered over the side of the building.

"Looks like you made them mad."

Lady said as she and I quickly stepped back to avoid the fireballs that were coming up at us.

"What's the smaller one doing?"

Lady asked as the smaller of the two spiders abdomens started to expand until it finally split, unleashing about fifty dog-sized mini spiders, which started to climb the building.

"Hahahaha go my children devour their flesh."

The smaller spider said as it lay down dieing.

"Wait… You're a girl spider? Why do you have such a deep voice? You sound manlier than I do."

I called down to the spider as Lady and I jumped down, raining down bullets on the spiders climbing up. The two main spiders then spat flames up at us, but before they could reach us, Dante and Trish jumped and grabbed onto our arms, taking us away from the flames. They had killed their own children, and we were on the ground safe. There was only one spider left. It looked scared, and for good reason. All of us grabbed our guns and Dante and I said at the same time,

"Jackpot."

And we started to fire. We riddled the body with bullets until the entire front side was just a pile of goo. After a little reunion between Dante and Lady, and by reunion I mean she asked for the money he owed her again, we all went back to the shop and celebrated with pizza and ice cream. I had been working for Dante for a year and I missed home and all my friends so that night I decided it was time to leave.

"Hey Dante, thanks for the training and all but I think it's about time I started my own business someplace where they don't have three devil hunters already."

I said to Dante the next morning.

"So that means you're leaving then."

He yawned lazily back to me.

"Yeah I have a train to catch soon, but I wanted to say bye before I left."

I said packing my sword and my old ebony and ivory

"If you're leaving I have something for yeah. I made them because using those old things just won't cut it. So take these."

And he took the old pair of guns from me and handed a metal suitcase to me. I opened it slightly confused because Dante never had given me something without having me work for it first. I looked inside and saw a brand new pair of his custom guns. Engraved on them in gold where the words '_Good bye, you persistent little pest'_. I wasn't sure if the good bye was for me or the creatures that would on the receiving end of them.

"Did you make these for me?"

I marveled at the new guns.

"Yeah I got bored, so I made them for when you left. Those old ones just don't cut it for a real devil hunter, so take these."

Dante said as he went back to his normal seat at the front desk.

"Thanks."

I said still shocked that Dante actually made them for me.

"No problem (Yawn) now you better get going."

Dante said sleepily as he leaned the chair back and put a magazine over his face like he always did.

"Later."

I said as I left the shop I walked ten feet, and then turned to get one last look at the shop before I left.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: New Friends

I came out of the game and landed face first on top of my bed. It felt great to be in it again, because my bed for the past year was the couch in the front of the shop. Everything was still as I had left it when I entered. I looked at my face in the mirror and saw my face was once again clean shaven. I wouldn't start to get stubble until about four more months. I took a deep breath and lay down. I looked at the time and saw that I was only in the game for a little more than two hours. I decided I deserved a break, and would relax for a few days before going into anything else. I spent a few days like a normal kid again, going to school and hanging out with my friends, that kind of stuff.

"Where have you been?"

Tyler asked Aaron as we met at lunch the day he came back. Tyler had to ask him again after waiting for Aaron to take out his head phones.

"I was sick."

Aaron said as he sat down on the ground near us.

"What's that on your arm?"

Tyler asked seeing his left arm covers in a bandage.

"Nothing, it's just a skin disorder from the sickness. The doctor says it messed with my pigment and it's just like a big birthmark… nothing to worry about."

He muttered plainly as if his hand wasn't black now.

"Ok?"

I said, not really wanting to get in a conversation about skin disorders during lunch. The day went on like normal, and soon school was out. I had to get home on my own again. I had gone home the way I usually did, but I stopped off at an AM PM for a drink. I was in the back when I heard the jingle of the door opening. I had just reached in the fridge to get a Monster when someone screamed.

"Everyone get down and give us all your money."

I nearly jumped into action, like I did as Spider-man, before remembering to stopping myself.

"I said get down! Deal with that punk bitch Jay."

I turned around to see three guys wearing masks. They were the same guys who had beaten me up the day I got my powers. I looked at each of them seeing they had upgraded from a baseball bat. They had two hand guns and a shot gun. I looked at the clerk who had a gun pointed at his head then at the man with the shot gun who was walking towards me. First thing I did was change the way I looked so I could hide my identity. I opened up the drink and took a big gulp.

"You deft white boy? I said get your ass on the ground or I'll blow it off."

He said as he raised the gun to my face.

"Hold on, I'm not done with my drink. The least you could do is, wait a few seconds before I kick your ass."

I took another drink but then my spider sense went off.

"You little fucker!"

Jay growled as he went to punch me in the face. I tilted my head back, making the miss and break the glass door.

"How rude, your manners haven't improved at all."

I said as he looked at me then cocked the gun, even though his hand was obviously in pain from breaking the glass. I looked at the other two guys who had turned their attention to me. He tried to shoot but I pinched the barrel shut. It backfired and broke the gun make a loud bang.

"What the fuck!"

He said as I took the broken gun and hit him with the butt of it. I then proceeded to flip over the unconscious body to dodge the bullets that had begun to fly at me. I dodged them and knocked out the other two guys with ease. I set the money for the drink down and walked out of the gas station, leaving the owner baffled. I left before anyone could ask me any questions, only to find out halfway home that my drink had been hit and was now empty.

I walked the rest of the way home drinkless. I opened the door into my room to see a light show happening under my bed. I looked under it to see Alastor starting to set my bed on fire with its lightning. I quickly webbed the fire, putting it out and pulled it out so it stopped. It was a living sword, and it wasn't happy being kept hidden under a bed. I took out and looked at my shiny new guns and began thinking of what to do to hide them. My mom was always in and out of my room for who knows why. I had no way to really hide my weapons, especially my sword, as you can tell. I kept them under my bed, but that wasn't going to cut it.

I decided it was time to find a safe way to hide them from my family by going into another story. No brilliant ideas came to mind as I look at my collection of movies and games. I look at my new Wii and automatically put in one of my favorite games, Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. It started up and I watched the cut scene until I saw a good place to enter. I hopped right in, just trying to forget my problem for now. I spun and spun as I entered the game, landing on the ground. I was still dizzy from the entry when I was helped up by Link. Then, the most amazing thing happened. Link spoke to me in a youthful voice.

"You ok? You looked like you'd just fallen off a horse."

I just stared at him with a blank look.

'Links not supposed to talk…'

I thought to myself. I suddenly came to my senses and nodded.

"So, who are you? I've never seen you here before."

Link asked.

"Umm, you can call me Stu."

I replied, getting back on my feet.

"Stu… Ok, so where you from? Are you from Hyrule Town or one of the villages?"

Link asked as I brushed the dirt off my clothes. The in game music was very calming and helped me BS a story without really thinking.

"Oh, I'm not from any town or village… I'm what you might call a treasure hunter. I just go from place to place looking for… Well, treasure."

I said with a smirk. I still had my sword and guns out so he was looking at me with a little concern, especially because my flashy clothes must have been bizarre to him. I simply said,

"Don't worry about these. There for protection. You have to be prepared when you're out and about like I am."

He seemed to approve of my explanation.

"Well then, welcome to Ordon village."

He said with a smile and went back to grooming Epona. I looked around and saw I was standing in front of Link's tree house. He got on Epona and started for the ranch when he turned and said,

"I have to go to work, but you can wait at my house if you want. I'll show you around later."

I nodded in approval and he went off. I turned to see Links tree house, I easily jumped the ten feet, not bothering to climb the ladder and found myself inside of his house. As I sat and waited for him to return I realized I needed to have a piece of the Triforce power so I don't become a phantom when the twilight realm merges with the realm of light. (If you haven't played the game you will have no idea what I am talking about)I would also need it to defeat Ganon, and to be able to enter the twilight realm. It wasn't too hard to get it from him though. All I had to do was touch him. So when he came back I shook his hand and properly introduced myself like a normal person would. I took this opportunity to get the Triforce. I felt the tingling sensation in my hand. A moment later I blinked and was surrounded by blackness. I didn't know what was going on but one of the most beautiful voices came out of nowhere.

"Young warrior who wishes to take the roll of Hero of Time, you have taken something that has remained constant for generations."

"We three had created these relics to maintain balance in this world… but now you have come and altered our magic. We must see to it that it is not corrupted."

Another heavenly voice chimed. I could hear the song of the three golden gods. I knew it was Din, Nayru and Farore who must be talking to me.

"What you wish to take must be altered. There are only three pieces in the original Triforce, Courage which belongs to Link whom you attempt to acquire the power, Wisdom which belongs to the Princess Zelda of Hyrule, and Power which is possessed by the Dark Lord Ganondorf. Since you have obtained the power of the Triforce we must make a new piece. Your piece must be connected to your personality as it does with the other owners."

One of the gods told me as I felt warmth in my hand.

"We have looked inside of your soul and seen your inner most secrets. You have much inner turmoil that conflicts with your strength. What gives you the ability to unleash your strength is that which you hold most dear, your friends. And thus shall be the new piece. You shall become the keeper of amity. It shall bond with you forever. May it serve you well in the future!"

The soothing voice said, it sounded as if a chorus was singing the most beautiful song ever. I was almost sad to go back to reality. I looked at my hand and saw a reversed Triforce appear on it. The center triangle glowed the brightest. I was the missing center of the Triforce.

After I got that out of the way, I helped Link with his chores. He was a normal guy. Then the moment came in the spring. I had decided to save the children earlier than normal, so Link wouldn't have to leave his town to save them.

'No need for two Heroes of Time.'

I thought to myself. The Moblins came at us in the spring. King Bulbin blew his horn causing a rift above us. I looked at the Moblins. They were very grotesque with their snot colored skin. I had no trouble killing each of them, all except for King Bulbin who got away.

"Link, get everyone to safety and make sure no one leaves the village until I come back."

I ordered Link as I ran off across the bridge after king Bulbin, but he had escaped. I hid Alastor and the twins for when I came back and went to go progress the story. I was stopped by the wall of Twilight, and though my spider sense went off. I stood still so I could be pulled in by a shadow beast's arm, but like Link I true into a Wolf. I had not anticipated the pain of transforming. It was like growing pains multiplied by ten. It was so intense that, like Link, I passed out. I woke up in the cell that Link would have been in. it smelt of death and decay. I could see a skeleton in the corner. All of this didn't bother me to much however.

'Eh at least I won't be stuck for long.'

I thought to myself. I got up to looked at myself in a puddle of what I was hoping was water. There I saw that I was red and black like my costume instead of green and white. I knew soon Midna would come to free me so I sat patiently for her. But the longer I continued to wait the sleepier I seemed to get. I waited for hours but still no sign of her so went to sleep. I was woken up by a squeaky voice.

"I found you!"

I sat up excited to finally be free. I looked through the bars, but saw nothing. My hopes faded slightly but then came her mischievous and I knew she was there. I look up to see her red, orange and yellow eye looking down at me.

I looked right back smugly… Well, smug for a wolf. I opened my mouth and tried to talk to her but all that came out was barks, howls and snarls. It made Midna giggle again. Midna came to floor level pat my chin and said,

"Eee hee you silly little wolf. I can't understand you, but you can understand me… Can't you?"

I nodded looking at Midna who was about four and a half feet tall with the added height of her fused shadow.

"What do you say we make a deal? I set you free and all you have to do is do anything I tell you. You will be my slave until I get what I want."

I wanted to say 'that's what she said' so badly, but I couldn't so I shook my head yes.

"You humans are obedient to a fault. Oops, but you AREN'T a human anymore, are you? You're a beast! Eee hee!"

She grinned as she patted my chin.

'I don't think you can call me human when I look normal either now that I think of it. I mean humans can't get stabbed through the chest and live now can they.'

I thought to myself. I hadn't thought about how I was no longer human technically.

"Now let's get these chains off, shall we?"

She grinned as she cut the chain with her magic. I looked at the three links of chain she left with annoyance, knowing that they would get in the way. She appeared in front of me and laughed,

"You look kinda surprised. Eee hee hee."

She jumped backwards through the bars and continued.

"I bet you're wondering where exactly are we?"

'Nope'

I thought to myself,

"Well if you can get out here I might tell you."

Midna got herself out of the jail cell and waited for me.

I got out without trouble, but I was not used to walking on four legs… Not at all. I looked like I was drunk, to be quite honest. This made Midna giggle even more, but I got the hang of it really quickly. I looked for Midna and she jumped on my back and said,

"Humph, I guess you're not completely stupid after all!"

She lay down on my back and got close to my head.

"Listen, I like you, so I think I'll get you out of here."

Then she grabbed my ear to make sure I was listening.

"But in exchange for my help, you have to do EXACTLY as I say! If you need to talk just call my name, Midna. So, are we all clear? Good now, come on! Get moving!"

It was on the way to Zelda's room where it came to me, the idea of how to safely store my weapons and get a new friend at the same time. I had been debating on whether or not to getting someone to go with me when I entered a story because I got so lonely and missed having someone I knew around. I thought of how I would find out if she would be the person I took with me and if it would be a good idea. I would tell her the truth and depending on how she reacted to it, offer to bring Midna back with me or just leave. I chose her to be the first person I took because she was always one of my favorite characters.

I thought it over in my head. She will be fine. She is from another world so… I being from another world wouldn't be to strange to her. But before I could take her, I would have to get her to agree on going with me willingly. I wouldn't take her agents, her will, or try to trick her into it. So I traveled the rest of the water ways and went up the castle to Zelda's chamber. There Zelda told us what I already knew of how she lost the Kingdom and how to get back to normal. We than continued down to the spring were she wanted me to get the weapons so I had to do my best to explain that I already had weapons in my human form by writing in the dirt. I had hidden them in the spring so she got them and poofed them away for me. We were about to leave the spring when the pillars dropped from the sky and down came a shadow beast with them.

I snarled as I looked at the big black creature that was nearly three times my size. I leaped for it and bit down with my teeth. I pulled and tore its throat out killing it.

'Nasty, tastes like feet.'

I thought to myself as I tried to get the taste of the shadow beast out of my mouth. We tried to leave again when the guardian of light told us to save the other guardians so I could restore Hyrule back to normal. We went on to the next spring and found the next Guardian and got the vessel of tears.

After hearing more information I already knew, I went on a bug hunt and collected all the tears to restore the Guardian in no time. I was then transported back to the spring. The Guardian turned back to normal and so did I, though he was a little confused that I was a hero of time instead of the "blue-eyed warrior". He then spoke of a great power and told us to seek out the fused shadows. I was glad to be human because the fleas had really started to bug the crap out of me. It was really awkward scratching myself with Midna riding me. I looked around for Midna but couldn't find her.

"Midna?"

I called as she appeared from hiding in my shadow and said

"You thought I left you didn't you. Nope I'm still here and you better get moving to find the fused shadow remember are deal?"

"Yes, my master."

I sighed with a little half smile. I started for the Forest temple where I would find the first piece of the fused shadow. I knew where we had to go so I got there in no time.

"So where are you from? You live somewhere around here? It looks like you know your way around."

Midna asked as we got closer.

"Not really, I just know the general direction. I don't live around here at all. I like to go from place to place and find something fun to do."

I told Midna

"Be careful who knows what that fog will do if you fall in it."

Midna warned as she came out for a better look.

"Don't worry I got it under control."

I chuckled, finding the path wolf link would take to get across. I jumped across the logs doing unnecessary flips to show off my agility, but Midna didn't seem too impressed. We reached the entrance the girl monkey who had been following me was beaconing me to follow it. The monkey led us to the bridge that the boss monkey cuts down. I didn't go back to free the rest of the monkeys yet. I ran about three steps and jumped the gorge. Midna popped up and asked

"How did you do that?"

Looking impressed for the first time.

"We all have secrets 'Eee hee' let's hear yours first and maybe I'll tell you mine. Why you obsessing over these Fused Shadow things?"

I asked in an almost mocking way.

"Forget it, doesn't matter, let's just keep going and find that fused shadow."

She said trying to avoid her past. So I left her alone and entered the monkey's lair. There he was smacking his ass at me. He threw his Gale boomerang at the Dekoo plants hanging from the ceiling, making them come down. They leaped for me. I raised my leg kicking both aside when they got close. I shook my head, feeling kind of sad at how easy this was and shot the bug off his head without even looking up. I wasn't going to bother wasting my energy on such an easy enemy. The bug fell off dead and the monkey ran leaving his boomeranged behind. Once again Midna was interested at what I could do. She came out of my shadow and said,

"Well aren't you just full of surprises, Eee hee."

With a smirk of approval. I simply looked back and said

"Don't be so easily impressed. Wait until I really get going."

She was warming up to me and the whole idea of her becoming my friend seemed very attainable. I liked the idea more and more I talked to her. She was just like I had imagined.

"Let's go save the rest of the monkeys before we move on. Then we can get your Fused Shadow, ok?"

"Wow, aren't you nice. You don't even need their help, yet you do it anyways, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Eee hee."

"Yeah I know. I'm cool like that, but it's not like I could just leave them when they need my help. That's why I'm still helping you."

I hinted that I was glad to help her.

"What do you mean? That's why you are still helping me?"

Midna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you really think I would do whatever you say if I didn't want to? I could just leave you, but I wouldn't do that, especially since you need my help, so let's go."

I said boldly, trying to show that I was there to help her. I sped through the rest of the place and saved the rest of the monkeys before going to the boss. I shot a web swung over and walked to the giant door with its giant lock.

"Looks like you need to find the key."

Midna said as she floated up to the lock to examine it.

"I got it right here."

I grinned as I cut the lock opened with Alastor, since I didn't want to go back. It split in two and fell on the ground, causing the dust to rise. I walked in and saw them, the two giant plants with enormous jaws growing out of the muck.

"Hey Midna, watch this."

I called as I pulled out the twins and started firing away at the left while the right tried to attack me. I made mulch out of the left one and started on the right, doing the same to it. The water began to rise as the center of the monster came out if it. It was so hideous compared to what it looked like in the game. It was dripping ooze and smelt terrible, and then the other two heads grew back. I stood there, not flinching as the three heads opened there mouth and roared at me. Its breath reeked and made my eyes water.

"Phew. What have you been eating? Seriously man, you need a tick tack."

I coughed as I attempted to wave the smell away from my face. I holstered Ebony and Ivory and unsheathed Alastor witch glistened and sparked as if waiting for the time it could be used to fight. I could finish this quick by slice right through the center head, but I wanted to give Midna a show. I leaped at its heads, cutting the left straight down the middle. Then I jumped off of the pieces quick as lightning at the right head, with my sword out in front. I flew right through it putting a hole in it.

Its center head streaked with pain. I then I rebounded off the wall at its main head. I landed on it and flung the goo off my sword before putting it away. It was still wailing in agony when I unleashed a jolt of thunder into it lighting up the entire room. It began to sizzle and its head stopped screeching. I jumped off onto the solid ground. The whole room fell silent then a few seconds later the monster started to crumble. Midna was staring at me with an exited face.

"So are we going to take its Fused Shadow and leave or are you going to keep stare at me?"

"Um right O...k I won't even asked you how you did that."

Midna gawked, still staring.

"Sea turtles… now can we leave?"

I asked as I handed the shadow to Midna and smiled in a 'you I know I'm the best' attitude. I turned to leave and tripped over a root falling flat on my face. Midna just shook her head suppressing a giggle. I didn't say anything but I saw the piece of heart, so I picked it up as a souvenir and we left.

We went to the next pond were the Guardian waited for me. I did the same thing with this Guardian of light as I did with the other one and went on my way. I walked into Kokriko village unaware I was being followed.

Midna popped out and said,

"Wow, you saved that guardian fast, so where was it he told use to go? Oh yeah, that Goron mine place, so let's get going. Shall we?"

But after she said this, out of nowhere King Bulbin grabbed her and I was knocked over before I could react to my spider sense, dazing me for a few seconds. I got up and ran after him, going into devil trigger mode so I could catch up with them as fast as I possible.

"How could I let her get caught, I'm a idiot."

I yelled at myself, I was in the field and I saw him with an unconscious Midna on the staff instead of the child.

"Put my friend down before I tear you apart with my bare hands."

He was not impressed by my threat, so he raised a knife to Midna cutting her. I ran over to him so fast Bulbin couldn't see me coming. I drop kicked him off of the boar and grabbed Midna before she fell to the ground.

"Midna wake up… you ok?"

I pleaded her to wake up as I saw a gash on her arm that bled profusely. Her blood glow the same turquoise color as her markings.

"Yeah I think so."

She groaned as she held her arm trying to stop the bleeding. Midna was hurt because I was to carless and cocky. I let this happen to her, but didn't have the time to take my anger out on Bulbin so I pulled out Ebony and put one bullet into Bulbin's head. I walked away, holding Midna in my arms. I took her to the shaman who helped bandage up her arm to stop the bleeding.

"Stuart, we have to get the Fused Shadows, I can't wait here. Don't let them see me."

Midna complained as the shaman told her it would be best to stay until he could make an anti-infection cream for her cut. It was getting late anyways, so I convinced Midna to stay for the night at Kokriko village. We needed rest anyways. Most of the villagers had been killed before I had arrived and there lodge was empty. We decided to stay there for the night. There were many rooms, but I stayed at Midna's bedside in a chair to make sure she was all right, and that's where I fell asleep. I awoke to see Midna's bed empty and her going up to the balcony, so I followed her quietly as possible.

I could feel a rather cold breeze for somewhere right next to a volcano. It was raining but it didn't seem to bother Midna who looked lost in thought. The rain was just falling on her as she looked up at the sky. She wore an expression that I had never seen her character have. I could tell that she was crying even through the rain. It seemed eth scene depicted how she felt inside. I walked up behind her and asked,

"What you doing out in the rain?"

This startled her a little, and she quickly changed her face to her evil grin and said.

"Waiting for morning to come, but why should I care."

She said looking away from me. I could tell she didn't like wasting time here.

"What are you doing up any ways? It was your idea to stay here in the first place to get some sleep."

She was avoiding eye contact with me. I could tell she didn't really want to talk to someone from "the world of light" that Link and the rest of the people in Twilight Princess came from. I was gonna see if I could do anything to help her still.

"I saw you get out of bed and I didn't want you to be alone… No one should ever have to be alone...and I do care…"

I grimaced as I remembered what it was like before I met Tyler. I never had a single friend all threw elementary and Jr. High school. I would just sit alone and read comic books or draw by myself. Well, when I wasn't being picked on, but I don't wanna talk about that yet.

"I can see how sad you are, there is no use trying to hide it."

She looked away and said.

"What makes you think something is wrong? Honestly, I just want to hurry up and get the Fused Shadows as fast as possible."

Talking to her like this wasn't going to help her, so I made the choice to tell her the truth. As the back ground music played Midna's desperate hour, I turned to look at the view and said.

"I not your fault, Zant had powers that weren't of your world."

She looked at me, confused, and I went on,

"Why do you hate me... Princess of Twilight?"

She looked at me in one of the saddest faces I have ever seen as she sat down and took the Fused Shadow off her head. Her secret wasn't a secret any longer. She could no longer hide from it.

"…I don't hate you…How long have you know?"

She muttered before falling silent.

"I've known all along, and that's not the only thing I know. I know the origins of your people and what happened to you. I know that you don't care for the world of light, well not yet anyway. But I also know how to break the curse on ya."

"But it was my fault. I lost my kingdom to that crazed man and I fled my people… I failed to fulfill my duty. I am there princess and I couldn't do anything to help them. "

She said, as if cursing herself.

"No, it's ok. You did what any one else would do. Just because you have a job to do doesn't mean you will always be able to do it right. Trust me, no one's perfect. Plus you should be able to relax some time I think."

"Why do you keep acting like you care?"

Midna asked sharply not sure if she could truest me. After all I was still somewhat of a stranger to her.

"I told you, it's because I do. I know your past and some of your future. I've known for a while now and I have wanted to get to know you and help you."

She sat and thought for a moment. I could tell she was still trying to decide what to make of me. Still shocked she asked.

"How could you know all this?"

And I said,

"If I tell you, you'll have to do one thing for me, ok? I promise I will break the curse one way or the other so you don't have to agree if you don't want to."

Midna raised an eyebrow.

"And what might that be?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: The Twilight Princess

I paused for a moment. I wanted to choose my words carefully.

"I was hoping you could be my friend and I want you to come see where I live… after we break your curse that is."

I asked quite plainly after deciding on what I should say.

"Your friend, umm ok where do you live?"

She really appeared quite taken aback with such a seemingly innocent request.

"You have to trust me, I don't wanna keep you from your home but I live kind far from the twilight realm."

I said attempting making sure she knew what she was getting herself into.

"Ok, I promise to go with you and be your friend, but where do you live?"

It seemed that she had become very curious about what I had to say, and had temporarily forgotten how sad she was. This was going to be the deciding factor whether I took her with me or not.

"Ok, here I go. I don't come from the world of light or the twilight world you're from. I'm from another one entirely."

I stopped there, not sure how to go on.

"Another world, you mean there is another world besides the two? What is it?"

Midna pried curiously. She seemed to have completely forgotten all about what was bothering her.

"Ok, before I tell you anymore you must promise not to freak out or get depressed."

I asked of Midna, not wanting to make her feel worse by telling her she's not real.

"Gah, I promise, now tell me."

She sighed I took a deep breath in and started.

"I come from a place where your just part of a story."

Midna looked at me, confused and said.

"I don't understand what do you mean, story?"

"This may come as shock to you, but your world was created by people in my world…but that doesn't make you any less real."

I added quickly, seeing her trying to wrap her mind around the idea. I then went on to explain my power to her to give her more detail. I was surprised to see how well she was taking the fact she was a fictional character. She seemed more interested than saddened.

"So if I come with you, I will have to leave my world behind."

Midna asked.

"No, I can make a link between are worlds or something so you can go back and forth, all I need is to touch the mirror of twilight I haven't really figured that out though but it should work. When you come with me, I will make it so you will be able to travel to your world through my shadow, so don't worry."

She mulled it over in her mind for a bit.

"Another world…"

She muttered to herself.

"I guess that makes sense."

She shrugged. I was excited to see her taking it so well.

"I'm so relieved you aren't freaking out right now."

I said giving Midna a smile.

"To be honest I really don't care. It's not all that surprising there's more than our two worlds out there. I figure either your crazy or you're telling the truth. Either way you said you would help me."

Midna said shrugging,

"Well I am crazy but that's beside the point."

I chuckled, making Midna give an honest grin. The rain stopped and the sun began to rise.

"How's your arm?"

I asked as looked at it, because it seemed to have healed.

"I told you we should have just kept on going. I healed it a while ago with my magic."

She said, giving me a little wink.

"Ha, now look who has some tricks up their sleeves, well if you had sleeves… Anyways, let's get you back to normal, shall we?"

So Midna and I set off to get the remaining pieces of fused shadow. It was exceedingly simple to get the next two pieces, except for me almost not being able to breathe under water. Midna and I had lots of fun along the way as I told her my past adventures as we went along. She had become much friendlier knowing more about me. She was very interested in hearing about the real world and she told me how her life as a princess was dull and that she was glad to finally have someone to talk to. She was usually so busy with being a princess that she had no time for friends.

After we found the last part of the Fused Shadow, Zant ambushed us, but I was ready and so was Midna. I saw him waiting for us and I made Midna hide in my shadow. It was then I noticed he looked more twisted and seamed to emit a strange aura. He came at me and it was the first true fight I had so far in the Legend of Zelda. For once I was forced to avoid an opponent. I ducked and weaved, avoiding his swords by inches. Then I saw my opening, I pulled out Ebony and Ivory and shot him multiple times

'_BAM BAM BAM'_

I continued to fire away but it took a few dozen shots to his chest to take him. What confused me was as he died, his shadow literally left the body, which doesn't normally happen in the game.

"Why am I still an ugly little imp?"

Said Midna as she popped out of my shadow.

"First off, you're not an ugly little imp, you're a cute little imp and most people in my world agree. Second, I told you that he was just a pawn. Now have to go to Hyrule castle and kill Ganon, the demon prince of thief's guy. So if you don't mind my worship, could you take us there?"

I asked with a wink, and at that we were gone. I didn't even bother to find the door key. I just broke the front door down a set off for the top tower. When I reached the main door I pushed it and saw him sitting there. Ganon didn't say anything but his looks said it all. He knew I was coming and was rather upset at this fact. He drew his sword and sneered at me. The glowing hole in his chest was my only chance to beat him, according to the game.

I lunged forward with Alastor, doing Dante's classic stinger move, attempting to stab him directly in the chest. He had anticipated me going for a killing blow and defended himself. Our swords were locked, so I let loose with some lightning, making Ganon start to smoke. This however only made him mad. I had not anticipated Ganondorf being this strong. He knew the only way to kill him was the scar on his chest so he would defend that spot heavily. I didn't know what I was going to do, because I would have to overpower him, which seemed impossible. He was much stronger than he appeared in either the game or in real life.

"Dude, you seriously need to lay off the steroids. I hear they do terrible things to guys."

He shoved me back me with his sword. We went back and forth at each other for a while and I had become very tired. I was only able to move at about half my full speed, so he was almost able to keep up. I wouldn't be able to do it for much longer. I had to finish it or I would lose this fight. But before I could think, he had charged at me. I couldn't react fast enough and…

"Oh shit!"

I said as I watched the blade come towards me, but out of nowhere came a glowing red hand. Midna had come out of my shadow to help me. She had him pinned to the throne.

"I'm a little disappointed in you Stewee. How can one guy give you so much trouble? I mean really, after defeating a giant plant, a fire monster and a mutant eel fish, not to mention that lunatic Zant. Good thing I'm here to save the day. Now get him while I have him pinned."

I wasn't going to let him have a chance to retaliate after Midna had helped me. He looked at me with such hatred as turned to him.

"You got it princess."

I chuckled with relief before I threw my sword into his chest, sticking him to the throne. His eyes grew wide as he tried to pull the sword out but with one last grunt he fell limp and vanished.

"It's not the Master Sword, but it'll do."

I turned just in time to witnessed Midna reverting back to her original body. I looked at her speechless, with my mouth wide open, so she broke the silence with,

"What? Say something! Am I so beautiful that you've no words left?"

I just grinned and walked up to Midna and she hugged me.

"Thank you... you kept you promises."

She said as she looked down at me because she was now half a foot taller than me.

"Anything for a friend."

I grinned. She looked slightly sad still.

"I'm sorry Stuart… for not trusting you."

She said as if struggling to come up with a good enough apology.

"Don't worry I wouldn't expect you to trust me without proving myself to you. No fowl, now let's get that mirror"

I winked as we went to the temple in the desert were we found the mirror of twilight. Using my suits power, I connected its power to my shadow so it would work as a portal.

"So you still up to going with me? I won't force you if you don't want to go. Plus, it's not like my world's anything special."

But she just looked at me with a 'shut up you know what I'm gonna say' look.

"Hey I promised I would, so let's get going to this dull world of yours."

"Ok, hold on. I really just hope this works."

I held out my hand and she grabbed it, then I left the game with her still holding my hand.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Old Friends

A couple of weeks have passed since Midna has come to my world. We had some problems with the little shadow trick, but we got it down eventually. She could come and go as she pleased from her world to mine. It ended up she was much older than she looked. She was about a hundred years older than I had expected, though she was still considered a young adult for a twili. I also found out that Midna had a few tricks that weren't shown too much in the game itself, like the power to shape shift. She could change the way she looked on command, including her clothes that apparently weren't really there.

Her true form is much like the one in the end of the game except she added the cloths with her power. She used a human form in my world when were where out. This gave me the chance to take her outside in my world without having to worry. I had taken her out to see a few sights like Disney Land and the beach, and she loved every minute of it. She even liked going to school with me…go figure. I had even introduced her to Tyler and Aaron as my friend from out of state who has moved back named Mia, and they quickly they became friends. It was funny watching Midna and Tyler interact because he had no idea who she was, even though he loved the game she was in.

Midna and I have become pretty good friends now. She has a tendency to pop up to say hi at the most random of times. I was glad to have made a new friend that could come with me where ever I went. She described me and my world like a vacation from what she considered a stressful life of having to be a responsible princess. It was three weeks after I came out of Twilight princess that I got a new guest.

"Damn this sucks … you ok man?"

I said to Tyler as he looked at his many boxes of stuff in my garage.

"Yeah I'm fine."

He sighed.

"Everything's going to be alright. We are here for you."

Mia AKA Midna conferred Tyler as she patted him on the back. Though Midna was usually rather wiled and fun loving, she sounded very motherly when the situation called for it.

"You can stay here for as long as you want."

I told Tyler, trying to make him smile.

"Thanks at least now I have my own room and I live in a house that isn't filthy all the time… Well, except for your room Stuart."

He grinned, perking up.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I grumbled, even though I knew he was right.

"You know he's right."

Midna said, as if reading my mind.

"It will be like a sleepover every night now."

He said trying to lighten the mood. Midna and I had just finished unloading Tyler's stuff into my garage. He had been kicked out of his house by his mom, who had moved away right after doing so. He was my best friend and he was not going to live at some foster care, so I told him to live with me. He and I have shared a room, but I have kept Mia a real identity a secret up until now.

I have made the decision to reveal my power, even though I was warned not to. I couldn't hide them forever. I kept using my powers when I thought no one else was around the house and I it wasn't for my spider sense I would have been caught many times. Telling him would be much better than him finding out by accident. I've had trouble keeping Midna a secret because even though she had become friends with Tyler as Mia without really asking too many questions, there was no way to really explain who she is or where she came from without making complex lie after lie. The day came when I was to confess everything.

"Hey Tyler, I have someone who wants to meet you."

I said to Tyler one day as we were playing games. Tyler turned his head up as I said this to him but his eyes didn't leave the screen.

"Yeah… ok. I'll do it later."

He mumbled with the vacant expression he gets while playing ironically enough, Twilight Princess. I looked at the Midna on the screen and laughed to myself.

"Hey butt head, pay attention!"

I said, getting the same reaction. I decided to try something to see if he really wasn't paying attention.

"Muffin sex…"

But I still got the same reaction.

"Tyler, stop for a second!"

Tyler ignored me as I repeated myself a few times, until he said.

"FINE WHAT IS IT!"

He said as he paused the game, and did an over exaggerated turn to show his obvious annoyance. He sometimes gets way to into a game and it's almost like he forgets what's going on around him.

"I have someone who wants to meet you."

I said for the fifth time.

"Who wants to meet me Stuart?"

He asked turning back to the game.

"First you have to promise to not tell anyone you ever met them, or else I will have to wipe your memory or something. I don't really know yet."

I said to Tyler.

"Stuart… You're an idiot."

He rolled his eyes going back to the game.

"Promise."

I demanded.

"Ok fine, I promise to never tell anyone, now who do you want me to meet?"

At that moment Midna came out of my shadow right next to me. Tyler fell off my bed and just stared at her.

"Who… are… you?"

Tyler gabbed not thinking.

"That hurts Tyler, don't you recognize me. Maybe this will help?"

Midna said as she changed to Mia, but Tyler did nothing, as if he was frozen solid.

"Recognize me now? Eee hee or maybe this might help you?"

Then she morphed into her imp form and did a little pose. After a few seconds of silence Midna chuckled

"I think I broke him. Eee hee."

But before I could reply Tyler said, still wearing his stunned expression,

"Stuart, why is the Midna in your room and how does she know my name?"

He quickly screwed his face up in an attempt to hide the fact that he just freaked out like a little fan girl. I didn't know if he was trying to be funny or not, but his expression was. Midna and I laughed for a little, and then went on to tell him what I had done and what has happened since the masked man came through my TV. Midna had to go give speech or something, so she went back home for the time being. She still made sure she didn't slack on any of her royal duties.

"See you later boys. Call me back when Ty is filled in."

She said before leaving. I wasn't sure Tyler got what I was saying, but he didn't ask any questions. But when I finished instead of asking more in-depth about my powers, he demanded I let him come with me the next time I went on an adventure. I didn't bother arguing because I knew how stubborn Tyler is. I knew he wouldn't stop asking, so I just agreed.

"Dude, we have to show Aaron."

Tyler beamed as he put the pieces of my story together.

"No. Tyler I can't, I probably shouldn't have even told you."

I told Tyler.

"Fine"

Tyler said before rushing to my shelf and pulling out a game.

"Ok let's go!"

Tyler said with a 'kid in a candy shop' look.

"Hold on, not so fast. There are a few things we need to do before we go in, got it."

I said to Tyler who looked confused.

"But, why can't we go now?"

He moaned.

"Because Tyler you will die. So we need to make sure you're done."

I said like I was talking to a child.

"Ok fine just hurryyyy."

He looked like he needed to pee, flailing his arms up and down.

"Ok fine, take this."

I stuck my hand out.

"But there's nothing in it."

Tyler said looking at my empty hand.

"Just grab my hand."

I told him.

"Gay."

Tyler replied as he reached for my hand, not knowing what to expect. Soon as he touched it, I broke a piece of my venom suit off near my wrist and it crawled onto Tyler, spreading all over him. Tyler was covered from head to toe in black inky goo and was struggling when it stopped and let his head come out.

"What the fuck!"

Tyler said struggling to break free of the suit.

"Sorry, didn't tell yeah I forgot how scary it is."

I laughed as Tyler tried to move, but was still being restricted by the suit.

"Haha very funny, wait till I get out of this. I am going to kill you and you will die. You will die a death of murder!"

He said as he continued to struggle.

"Take it easy, your fine. Just let it do its thing. It's a piece of my venom suit. It's just bonding with your body, there's nothing to worry about. I'm giving it to you so you don't die, ok? Plus it comes with some other perks, like enhancing all you abilities. Like strength, speed, and agility; you know, all that jazz. And it can gain new powers by touching other people, but you have to be careful what you take. I almost took some Dante memory when I got part of his demon blood, plus, you will never need to buy another pair of clothes again. It can morph into any shape you want… Within reason. And it can even change your appearance. It already has a few of my powers with it like Spider-man's basic powers."

By the time I finished telling Tyler all this, Tyler's suit had finished. It was now his normal clothes. He got up and punched me in the arm, nearly breaking it, even with my powers. He seemed to be stronger than me.

"OWWWWWW, YOU BITCH!"

I yelled as I rubbed my arm to help it regained feeling.

"Ok, now can we go?"

Tyler said picking the game up I looked at it, it was Kingdom Hearts II.

"No you still need weapons, especially if we are going to go into Kingdom Hearts. What do you want? I will try to get it quick as possible."

I said as I got up to look at all my movies and games.

"Weapons hmm… Ok, I want something that can change into any weapon I want. So it can change with the story be like a key blade in kingdom hearts or like a wand in Harry Potter."

Tyler said making his 'I'm thinking' face.

"Um, ok. Let me see."

I knew I wouldn't find anything like that in any of the things I watched when I got an idea. I called Midna out and asked her about her magic. She was rather good at casting spells and had one that was perfect for what Tyler wanted. She could make a magic ring for Tyler that had the power to take objects and make copies of them. Midna went back to her world for some magic help. She came back shortly with a spell book from her world. I was finding out there were lots of things about Midna and her world that weren't shown in the game, like that she knew lots of magic that only a skilled twili could perform. I asked her if her ring, which she had shown me, had the power to become many weapon like Tyler asked. She made a quick ring for Tyler.

"Ok, the way this works is you have to touch the weapons that want with the ring, kinda like the way you can get other peoples powers. It will make a twilight copy and you will have it long as you want, until it is holding three different weapons at a time. Be careful with what you choose because those magic rings are hard to find, ok?"

Tyler nodded.

"Ok, now can we go?"

"Not yet, you have the powers and the weapon but you still have no experience and we don't know what you're capable of yet, so we need a little training first. Remember, you can die if you're not careful."

I went over to the shelf and grabbed an X-man comic.

"How am I supposed to train in X-man?"

Tyler asked, getting annoyed.

"The danger room, duh. It's meant for people who can pick up tanks, so I think it will be able to handle are powers."

I put the movie in and ask Midna if she wanted to come.

"Why wouldn't I? It looks like it's gonna be fun."

She said giving me a wink. Tyler really wanted to hurry up, so I pulled us in.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Training

We appeared just outside of the X-mansion, Midna and I were standing on the porch. I was in my red and black trench coat and Midna in a variation of her normal clothes. Tyler however was on the ground, not used to entering a movie and still in the same clothes, not thinking to make a costume.

"Just follow my lead."

I told the other two before I helped him up and knocked on the door. It was answered by a short, scruffy looking man. He had a somewhat irritated look on his face.

"Hey, Logan"

I said cheerfully.

"Let me guess, telepath?"

He replied gruffly.

"Nope, you just have a big rep where I come from."

I answered back to him.

"Who's at the door Logan?"

Another voice came from behind him. It was Storm.

"I don't know. It's a couple of kids. You deal with this. I ain't no door man."

Logan groaned as he walked back.

"Hello Orora. And no I'm not a telepath. I just know most of your names by your reputation."

I said as she took Wolverine's place. Storm was much more cheerful looking. Her white hair reminded me of Dante.

"Hello, who might you three be?"

She asked looking at all of us.

"I'm Stuart, and this is Midna and Tyler. We were wondering if we could talk to Professor Xavier."

I said plainly as the other two waved.

"Why certainly. Please come in. So by the look of it, you three are mutants."

She said as she we walked through the school to Professor X's office. Midna hadn't bothered going into her human form since there was no reason to.

The X mansion was huge and there were all sorts of people there. Many people I recognized. I watched as Gambit got booted out of Rouges room for who knows what reason. Hank McCoy (Beast) was teaching a class in one of the rooms.

"Professor, I have three mutants who would like to speak with you. This is Stuart, Tyler and Midna."

Orora said and waited for the question to leave if it was safe, then left.

"Hello Professor. Before anything, please don't read our minds if you wouldn't mind. You can trust that we're not here for any mischief of any sort."

I said, not wanting any problems with him knowing he's only part of a story, though it probably made us seem more suspicious.

"You don't have to worry. I don't use my powers without permission. Now what can I do for you three?"

He said with a Dumbledore-like smile.

"We need to use one of your rooms if it wouldn't be any trouble."

I asked.

"Only one room? I think it would be best if you got your own separate rooms if you're planning on staying with us here."

He said, looking at us with his kind face.

"I didn't mean that kind of room. We're not looking to stay for very long. You see we're not mutants technically, but we do have powers."

I confessed that we weren't mutants right there to help him trust us.

"So your non-mutants with powers… Ok, but you still haven't told me how I can help."

He said, wanting to help.

"Well you see, these powers are relatively new to us and aren't sure what they can do. We need to test our new powers to find out what we are capable of and learn how to control them like any normal mutant, and to do that we need a safe and secure training ground. I know you have a place that would be perfect, the Danger Room."

I said, finally getting to the point.

"So you want to use the Danger Room to learn to control you powers. Of course you can. That's what I made it for, to help train those in need of it. The fact you not technically mutants shouldn't change my judgment in the slightest. Come, let me take you to our facilities."

I was happy that I was right in thinking he would be a kind man and would want to help us. He then led us to the elevator and down to a big room the size of a military aircraft base. There was a glass bubble at the top.

"Hmm… (Looks around… Childish grin) ECHO!"

I yelled as we walked into it and was answered back by myself

"Here we are, I will go to the control room up there, so I won't be too long."

Professor X said as he pointed to the glass bubble window on the ceiling. I didn't want to put Midna in any danger so I asked her to accompany him.

"Mid could you go with him so you can get a good view of the action and help him if he needs it?"

Midna looked at me, a little disappointed, and said,

"Sure thing."

And she followed him. Moments later, the Professor's voice came out of nowhere and said,

"Ok what should we test first? How does the speed and reflex course sound?"

"Great!"

Tyler said, turning to me.

"Let me go first, ok?"

I shrugged my shoulders and said,

"Fine with me."

Then Professor's voice came again.

"I need to know some specifics on your powers so I can give you the right obstacles."

I told him that we had similar powers to Spider-man.

"Ok, the objective of this exercise it to get from point A to point B as fast as you can without falling or getting zapped. It will also test you on your dogging reflexes so avoid the traps. You don't need to worry about death., if you are hit by a laser or fall off an obstacle you will simply be deducted ten seconds. If you are unable to complete a part of the course simply go around it."

Then out of the floor and walls came pieces of an obstacle course that resembled the ninja warrior course, but for mutants. Instead of a 20 foot warped wall there was a 40 foot warped wall and multiple gaps when no normal human could ever jump. At the end there was a dash to the end. Tyler walked up to the starting line and then waited for the sign to go. The buzzer sounded and he went off.

Tyler ran with the speed of an Olympic athlete. He ran straight up the wall and jumped across the gaps. The moving platforms were a little tricky because some came out below his feet. He made it to the dash and nearly missed, running through a laser barrier that popped out of the ground.

"Tyler, you clocked in at five minutes and thirty three seconds. That ranks you at super human speed."

Tyler came back with a proud look on his face.

"Beat that."

He gloated confidently. I didn't know why but Tyler ether couldn't or didn't know how to move super fast like I did. It might have been all that trickster training I did with Dante. It had defiantly made me lots faster by forcing me to keep moving during a fight. It was either that or the suit could be changing for each of our personalities. Me, always wanting to be quick-witted, would explain me, but what about Tyler? I thought about it and his most distinguishing feature was how he was always stubborn and had to be right all the time because felt sure of himself?

I got up to the starting line and waited. The starting buzzer went off. I went into devil trigger mode and bolted forward as fast as I could. I was going so fast you couldn't even see me, unless I had to change direction. I made it to the first obstacle within five seconds. I had to I jump up the platforms. I was only visible for seconds before each jump.

Next came the pillar jumps, where I had to jump from poll to poll with each one getting smaller as I got further. I finally reached the dash when my spider-sense went off. I barely missed the wall shooting out of the ground. I was losing speed having to duck and weave through the barriers. I finally made it to the end.

"Well done Stuart. You clocked in at fifty three point thirteen seconds. I'm impressed, that's only fourteen seconds above Quick Silver's time. That ranks you at supersonic speed. You topped out at ten miles… per second, but it seems when you reached your top speed you exhausted about half your energy."

Said Professor X. Sure I was ten miles per second fast but I barley could feel my legs. I had gone all out. I didn't even know I could move that fast because I had never tried.

"Supersonic? What's that mean? Did I break it?"

I said taking a deep breathing after each word as I put my hands on my knees. I was tired, but Tyler looked angry.

"No fair cheater. You teleported!"

Tyler accused me.

"No I didn't, your eyes just couldn't keep up with me. I learned that from Dante, but I added a little of my own style to it. I'm fast but I can't keep it up for long. I don't know why you can't do it. I could always move like that when I got my suit. You should have all the same powers as me."

I replied still panting heavily still.

"Ok, how do I move that fast?"

He asked.

"You just do."

I replied back, but no matter what he couldn't do it.

"Hey Stuart, Tyler, could we start a new training? I'm getting bored up here."

Midna sighed through the speaker.

"Sure what's next?"

I said.

"Next, we shall see how strong you are. The rules are simple in that you have to just test out your major muscles. We will test your arm strength. Just step up to the machines and we can begin."

Professor X told us.

"This time, you go first."

Tyler said to me, still angry.

"Fine."

I said back as I stepped up to the machine that looked like a giant bench press. I lay down and pressed up as it began to put more and more weight on me. I finally reached my limit and it stopped.

"You stopped at ten point five tones. That's right around Spider-man's strength. It will ranks you at superhuman class."

Professor said to me.

"Ok Stewee, take a break. Tyler you're up. Time to get your man hood back"

Midna said through the speaker. I watched as Tyler did the same thing. He lay down and began. I watched as the scale continued to rise. Ten, twenty, thirty tons went by and still Tyler kept going.

"Am I getting close to your score Stuart?"

Tyler said, not being able to see the board. I just watched as Tyler kept going fifty, sixty, seventy, and eighty. My mouth must have been close to touching the floor by the time it had reached its top weight and it started to creak. It peaked at one hundred tons. Tyler gave out one last push with a loud,

"ARRGGG"

And then it cracked. He stood up took a big breath and looked up at the board.

"Hey Stuart, one hundred tons… what does that mean? Did I break it? Wait, yeah I did! Sorry by the way, Professor X."

Tyler grinned as he had to sit back down from the strain and nearly passed out. All I could do is just look at Tyler with utter shock.

'Ok if He hits me it will probably kill me'

I thought to myself

"It's… quite all right. Tyler I can't believe it someone your size with the strength of someone like my brother (The juggernaut) you went over our scales."

Then with another loud creak the lights in the room went out then back on again after about a minute.

"Sorry about that it, seems you overloaded the system. I will have everything back to normal soon."

But as he told us to please wait a loud siren went off, along with a robotic voice.

"Combat training activated. Combat status, level ten Doomsday settings."

Professor X came back on now sounding concerned.

"Boys, you must get out of there. It's malfunctioning."

Tyler and I looked at each other and started for the exit but it was closed. Doors on the far walls opened and out came robot soldiers with an assortment weapons. All around us the room was changing into a death trap. Razor blades and random robot tentacles shot out of the ground. The walls began to come alive with the laser turrets that sprouted nearly every where they could.

'THANK GOD I don't look good in a school girl uniform'

(Refer to internet jokes if you wanna understand why I put that)

I thought to myself as I saw the tentacles.

"Hold on boys, I'm still trying to override the system just hold on."

"Midna, weapons quick!"

I shouted as she made them appear in front of me with a loud crack and puff of smoke. I grabbed them and then holstered Ebony and Ivory. I grabbed Alastor which was still flouting there and was going to give Tyler the twins not thinking they wouldn't work for him any ways, but he had already run halfway to the robots when they started to fire at him. He had enough time to raise his arms to block his face. The bullets were hitting him though I saw no blood or sign of him stopping. He just kept going until he smashed into a pile of robots. I shot at the tentacles and assorted bladed robot arms, keeping them away from Tyler. The only thing that seemed to slow him down was the occasional laser blast that hit him. He somehow made it through the bullets and grabbed the nearest robots gun.

He swung it hitting the other ones nearest him. He them made his own gun appear and started to fire like a mad man with absolutely no style or grace. He looked like an average shooter character that could take a tone of bullets and still keep going. Suddenly out of the ground came walls that tried to crush him. He quickly broke them with a swift punch. I shrugged and went to join him. The robots didn't seem too difficult to kill, but I saw that more types of robots were coming out. The walls suddenly started shooting out more metal tentacles and flying razors at us. We were being overwhelmed by them when I heard a crash from above. Midna had jumped out of the window and was coming down to us. Her hair looked like fire as it fluttered in the wind.

"Midna no!"

I yelled to her as she fell into a swarm of robots. I had no idea why she had come crashing out the window but my best guess was the robots had gotten up stairs somehow. Tyler and I rushed to where she fell but when I got there I saw something unbelievable. Tyler and I both had the same dumb struck face as we saw it. Midna was in what looked like battle armor and she was kicking ass.

She held a sword and was cutting away at the robots and the way she moved seemed like she was dancing. Midna also seemed to be emitting sparks and flashes of light destroying the robots. They stood no chance against us. We were all fighting as a team when the Professor's voice came back once again.

"I've got it."

Suddenly, all the robots went off and we left the Danger Room, still tired from the unexpected fight.

"How come you didn't tell me you could fight like that? I mean I know you could fight but I had no idea you where that good."

I asked Midna as we walked out of the room.

"You never asked. You think after what happened to me with Zant that I wouldn't learn to fight. Eee hee."

She said with an innocent smile.

"Yeah Midna, you were like a sexy, ninja, pirate, jedi or something."

Tyler added on.

We stopped and I turned to Tyler and said,

"Sexy Ninja pirate jedi? Really Tyler, what the fuck? That sounds like something I would say."

He just shrugged at this and I went on,

"And Tyler what were you thinking just charging like that? You could have gotten shot."

I chastised Tyler who still was looking at the gun he had made.

"I did… It only scratched me when I got close enough to touch the guns though. Doesn't it do that for you?"

Tyler said in a matter of fact tone.

"Oh… ok."

I was impressed because my suit wasn't that resistant. I had a fairly strong suit that could stop a gunshot from a distance but if I had gotten as close as Tyler did I would have gotten shot the fuck up. I just decided to accept it as that he was stronger and better protected than I was.

"Anyways, you need to work on fighting a little more. You have no matter of skill what so ever. You looked like you were human for goodness sake."

I said not remembering how long it took me to get where I was.

"…But I am human."

Tyler replied confused.

"Well it's been fun but I have to go for a bit. I need to go sign some laws into order and check in with my family."

Midna said as we caught up with her.

"Sounds fun…"

I rolled my eyes as I hugged her.

"Such is the life of a princess. Call me if you need me."

She said giving us a smile before leaving. Professor X apologized to us multiple times but we told him it was all right because we needed some real combat training. We had gotten what we needed and that was enough for me. We thanked Professor X and then left the story. No sooner had we gotten back had Tyler put in kingdom hearts.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight Kingdom Hearts

"Ok, let's go."

Tyler said, as if he was going to wet himself. I took a second to make sure I had gone over everything. I looked at Tyler who was standing ready to jump right back in to another story and realized something.

"Ok but there is still one thing."

I said looking at him.

(Eye twitch) "…What?"

Tyler said exasperated.

"You need some new duds."

I answered. Tyler looked at my outfit then at his normal street cloths. He always had a strange fashion sense because he mixed Goth with normal kid. Though his cloths were interesting he gave me the, 'yeah you're probably right' head shake. After a little while he decided on an outfit. I looked at Tyler, who was now in his new clothes. He wore a long black jacket with lots of belts going every which way. His curly hair now had red streaks and was wilder than ever and almost looked like it was alive with the ways it moved when he walked. He grinned to show fangs and I could see his ears were pointed now. He took off his glasses and threw them to the ground because he no longer needed them. The only thing that remained from his original cloths was he his ring. He looked kinda demonic to the point of almost scary. To top it off he colored his eyes bright red which reminded me of the cloaked man who I still haven't seen for quite some time.

"Very nice…you've always been so fashionable. I see you are going for the bondage look."

I said to him in an overly flamboyant voice and let my wrist go limp.

"Shut up and take me to the game…please."

Tyler groaned, as if he was going to explode. I placed my hand on Tyler's shoulder after putting the game inside and loading my save past the Roxas part. I Pulled us in. We had arrived in Hallow Bastion, Tyler not falling down this time and Midna still in my shadow. We arrived just in time to see Sora go towards Merlin's house. We chased after him, jumping over the buildings to watch Sora meet up with Yuffie and go in to Merlin's house.

"Ok here's the plan. You and I are going to wait to reveal ourselves until the right moment. So for now let's just wait and watch."

"Reveal ourselves… why are you so lame?"

Tyler said mockingly to me as he shook his head.

"Shut up and just follow my lead."

We stayed out of sight until Sora and Squall were attacked and had to defend the Bailey soon as Organization XIII appeared to mock Sora.

"Ready, now let's go."

I whispered as Tyler and I jumped from are hiding place to attack them. I was so fast they didn't even notice me standing behind them.

"Hello!"

I grinned grabbed the closest two to me by the hood and pulled them so Tyler had a clear shot.

"And good bye!"

Tyler jeered as he landed two kicks straight into the faces of Xemnas and Xaldin. Most of them had retreated into darkness except for them, but they soon broke free and fled like dogs with their tails between their legs. Sora, Donald, Goofy and Squall were all staring at us with their weapons ready as we jumped down to them.

"Who…Who are you and why are you here?"

Demanded Sora,

"My name's Xetryl and this is Startux, we come from another world like Sora. We're here to find and help the key blade master Sora and his companion Donald and Goofy in his quest, we know all about you past adventures fighting Ansem and such…Sora, may I see you key blade?"

Tyler said in one breath before I could tell them who we are. He used are Organization XIII names. We had made long before I had the power. The named were our normal names mixed up with an x in it.

"My key blade, um sure?"

Sora muttered, taken aback but knowing Tyler wouldn't be able to use it against him he let Tyler hold his key blade. Tyler took it and had it in his hand for about 6 seconds before it went back to Sora.

"If you know so much about me then how come you didn't know you wouldn't be able to use my key blade?"

Sora asked now pointing the key blade at us.

"Calm down, we said were here to help you."

I raised my hands as if surrendering.

"And anyways, we did know that, I just wanted to compare it to mine."

Tyler then made a wicked looking key blade appear out of nowhere. It was not like any other key blade I had ever seen. It was made of thick black metal. I knew he just wanted to see Sora's to get his own key blade in his ring.

"A key blade? How do you have one!"

"You're not the only one with a key blade. The King and Riku both have their own key blades. Now put you weapons down, were the good guys."

"Gawrsh, sorry about that"

Goofy apologized for Sora who still looked a little shocked at the mentioning of Riku's name.

"You just kinda came out of nowhere."

Donald continued as the put there weapons away.

"So where did you learn to fight like that?"

Asked Squall quite plainly,

"Yeah, you guy work well together. How did you get so good?"

Sora asked seeming to calm down.

"Well you pick up a few things traveling from world to world like Xetryl and I do."

I gave Tyler a little smirk after I said that. Remembering the third member of our group made me called out to her

"Oh yeah, Midna come out meet Sora and the gang."

Midna appeared next to Donald in her imp form for some reason (after I told her she was a cute imp in Twilight Princess she has randomly changed to it when she gets bored).

"Agh Heartless, thunder!"

Donald screamed, now pointing his staff at Midna.

"No wait!"

I said as I pushed Midna out of the way just in time but the thunder hit me, luckily for me my power to control electricity along with my sword Alastor having power over lightning absorbed the most of the blow.

"No, she's are friend."

I said still smoking slightly. Donald looked thoroughly confused.

"Oh sorry, she just came out of your shadow like a Heartless… and… I just reacted too fast. Are you ok?"

Donald muttered in obvious shame and embarrassment.

"It's quit all right, no one was hurt, but do be sure not to do that again, ok silly little duck? Eee hee."

Midna Giggled in her normal calm, controlling, but slightly playful voice. She was now in her human slash twili form.

"Yeah you should be more respectful to the princess of Twilight."

Tyler warned Donald as he looked stunned to see her change.

"Wow there's more princesses?"

Sora asked in the same excited voice as when he hears that they're going to see Santa. I rolled my eyes because he had already met seven other princess before.

"Eee hee, yes but you can call me Midna little boy. Eee hee."

Midna said.

"Hey I'm not little, I'm 14 years old!"

Sora said, clearly acting his age.

"Haven't you been asleep for a year though?"

I asked jokingly.

"Yeah I have, that means… Aw man! I missed a birthday!"

Sora whined, drooping down like a wilted flower.

"Anyways… looks like you guys have a bit of a problem."

I pointed out, looking at the view into the canyon.

"A Heartless and Nobody problem."

Tyler went on.

"Yeah, were still working on a plan to get rid of them, but so far we haven't had any luck."

Squall said as if he was just now getting interested. I looked at Tyler then back at Midna and said with a grin,

"You know, I think I have an idea."

But before they could ask what it was, I was off running toward the swarm of Heartless. I looked back to see Tyler following me with a wide grin on his face. My coat tail flapping in the wind and the sound of a few hundred Heartless just waiting to be killed were all I could hear.

"I should go and help them. After all I don't want to miss all the fun now do I? Eee hee."

Midna said to Sora and the others before winking and leaping out the window to join Tyler and I. Sora, Donald, Goofy and Squall rushed to the window to see us just as we got close to the now charging mass of Heartless. I drew Ebony and Ivory. I was the first one to reach the fight.

I leaped into the air raining bullets down upon the Heartless making me a clear patch of ground to land on in the center of the Heartless army. By this time Tyler had reached the fight, followed closely by Midna with weapons drawn, Tyler with his ring had made Key Blade and Midna has two swords that were curved like the elfish swords in Lord of The Rings. Tyler was plowing through the Heartless like a tank, cutting down Heartless with ease. With every leap he was leaving a trail of black smoke and hearts behind him, and Midna now laughing with excitement, was spinning and twirling around the Heartless even leaping off of the Heartless before cutting them in half. I had seen a little of how Midna fought previously but now that we had a lot more things to fight I was able to see her in action much better. The low level Heartless stood no chance against us and Tyler soon found his way to me.

"Great plan Einstein, how did you ever come up with it?"

Tyler asked sarcastically as he drove his key blade through ten Heartless in one swing.

"You know, it just came to me out of nowhere."

I said with a laugh, putting the twins back and drawing Alastor. I shot a bolt of lightning, killing tons of Heartless. Then I ran through the gap as Tyler used blizzard, freezing twenty plus Heartless. He cut them down, shattering them, and then followed me. I guessed that he had taken the power from Sora wile touching him and I made a mental note to do the same. I heard Yuffie's voice belting out,

"Take that stupid Heartless!"

Then,

"Ow, my head!"

Then I knew the rest of the people had joined the fight. It would be over with soon. Tyler had gone in the other direction and I was fighting alone again, but could still hear people fighting, calling out spells, or just taunting.

"Thunder, fire, fire, FIRE, THUNDER, BLIZZARD!"

I heard and saw flashed of light from Donald who was screaming, now in a fighting rage.

"Take this and that and that!"

I heard Sora whom was somewhere to my left. I saw Squall and Cloud a little ways away on a plateau to my right. I was fighting when my spider sense when crazy and the Heartless right behind me were cut into pieces by magic and Midna came from the gap."

Hey babe, havin' fun?"

I asked to Midna casually though my head was buzzing so loudly from my spider sense I couldn't think straight.

"I guess, but it is a bit too easy, not much challenge don't you think?"

But before she could even finish the sentence, the Heartless started to retreat back into the shadow.

"Hey looks like we win! Eee hee."

But something was very wrong. My spider sense was still going crazy. Then it suddenly stopped. I looked around and saw Donald and Goofy jumping up and down to my left about twenty feet away and to my right was Sora, Yuffie, Cloud, Squall, and Aerith. The only one I didn't see was Tyler, but I soon spotted him quite a ways off behind me, now walking towards us with what looked like a drink that said Hi-potion. Soon everyone was together except Tyler who was still far, when my spider sense went off stronger than ever. It was so strong my head felt like it would split and then I heard Xemnas, but it sounded different like there were two voices.

"Huhuhuhuhuhu finally we meet, I expected better from that fool but it looks like he made a terrible mistake by entrusting the power and responsibility into such a reckless young man, especially to a true descendant as well. Though I do admit you are different from the others. Though it seems to be more in our favor than in your. Hahahaha you ready to die? Startux, clever name, Statrux, but as I said, DIE!"

And at that, a swarm of huge Heartless that I had never seen appeared not too far away from where Tyler was. They charged towards us, engulfing Tyler and hiding him from sight. They reached us in no time. They were less in number, only a hundred or so, but they were powerful. I was worried for Tyler, but had more pressing matters to attend to, like saving the others around me who were having trouble as well.

Midna and I were working together, fighting as many Heartless as we could handle. They were definitely tougher than your average Heartless, because the only sure fire way to kill these guys was to decapitate them or vaporize them. It seemed that just cutting their limbs off wouldn't do, even cutting them in half didn't stop them.

"Now this is a challenge."

Midna said as she killed one of them. We were all working together helping each other, so we were not having too much trouble, but every time I made a break to go help Tyler I was stopped by one of the Heartless and forced back to the group. I would be grabbed and slammed into the ground with such force I would have lost my weapons if I didn't have wall crawling powers to help me hold me guns and sword.

I had gone into devil trigger mode, and was now able to break from the group and help Tyler. I ran in the direction I last saw Tyler and kept saying to myself,

"Come on Tyler, if you die, I'll fucking kill you!"

And soon found him fighting off the swarming Heartless. I leaped over the Heartless blocking my way and got a good look at Tyler. He was moving like I had never seen him before. Then I realized he had two key blades and his coat was now green. He was in valor mode, which had apparently increased his enormous strength to an immeasurable level, but he looked like it was taking a toll on his body. The Heartless were biting down on him and he was short of breath and his movements where rapidly losing speed.

I soon realized that I was becoming exhausted from being in devil trigger for so long as well. I would not be able to keep it up for much longer but I didn't have to there was less than 20 left and everyone was racing to come help us.

'Only a few more yards'

I shouted in my head but I was too late to reach Tyler. He was over taken by the Heartless and had vanished into darkness.

"Tyler, NO!"

I screamed as I sliced through the last of the Heartless trying to save Tyler but it was too late he was gone. I looked around in desperation for anything expecting to see him just standing there, but he wasn't. Then I heard laughter, which filled me with hate and anger like nothing else.

"Xemnas!"

I screamed, whipping around to face him.

"So he didn't pick such a dud after all, but that doesn't matter anymore we have your friend, and if you ever want to see him alive again you will meet us at the World That Never Was and surrender yourself. Or you could just leave him here and save yourself by going home. It's your choice. See you soon hahahahahahahahahahahaha."

They had Tyler, and it was my fault. I fell to my knees.

"He's gone… It's all my fault… He's gone and it's all my fault."

I kept saying to myself. My worst fear had become a reality. My friend had been put into danger because of me and he might die because of it.

"Stuart, Its ok, we will get him back, there's no need to worry. Stuart, please stand up. You're scaring me."

Midna putting her hand on my shoulder. Her voice seemed to lift me up slightly though only for a second.

"We can still save him, but sitting here won't help Tyler. We need to go save him, come on. You can't just give up when something goes wrong Stuart."

Midna went on. I looked up at her, and something in her face gave me some hope and optimism.

"You can come with us. We're looking for our friends too. If we keep looking we are sure to find this World That Never Was."

Said Sora who's sentence was continued by Donald.

"Sora right Startux. If you come with us we're bound to find him, but if you come with us you can't look like that, our ship…"

But I was too mad to let him finish his own line.

"Runs on happy faces, I know. It's a Gummie ship right."

I interrupted and forced a smile.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's get going, come on Midna, we have to save Xetryl."

She smiled and nodded, and then we went to the Gummie Ship. As we left for another world, I wondered what was happening to Tyler and how Xemnas knew my name. There was no way I would let Tyler get hurt. Midna could tell what I was thinking and said,

"Don't worry, he's gonna be fine. Knowing Tyler he will keep his calm and be fine waiting for us to come get him."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: Xetryl

"Uh, where am I?"

Tyler mumbled, rubbing his head as he found he was in a cell similar to the one that held Kairi. When Tyler realized this, he began to panic.

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, OH SHIT! FUCKING SHIT, GET ME THE HELL OUT!"

He was not chained down and still had his ring on, so he summoned his key blade and attacked the bars. But as soon as the blade made contact, he was thrown against the back wall.

"Ow my ass, heeeyyy… could someone let me out?"

After getting no reply, Tyler continued to attack the bars and get thrown back until a voice said.

"Stop it. We need you alive. If you keep this up, you won't last long. There's no way out, other than through this darkness thing, such a wonderful power."

The voice Tyler heard did not resemble Xemnas, who he saw speaking. Then another came.

"These bodies suit us well, don't you agree?"

It was Saïx, the second in command of the Organization. But like Xemnas, his voice seemed distorted.

"What do you want with me Xemnas?"

Tyler demanded boldly, making them both just laugh.

"What's so funny!"

Tyler yelled.

"Xemnas…? Ha, you wish. No, I'm much worse than Xemnas."

The man who appeared to be Xemnas said.

"You mean they don't know? They're just making it easier and easier on us."

Saïx said after seeing how confused Tyler looked.

"If you're not Xemnas, then who are you?"

Tyler said, puzzled.

"Since you're going to be dying anyway, it won't hurt to let you know. It might even be a little fun to see your expression. We are not who you think we are, we're ancient beings in fact. We travel from story to story looking for a way out so we can finally destroy the real world that had forsaken us. Your world, not some fictional world thought up by filthy humans. My true name is Zephon and this is Duma."

Said Xemnas

"Destroy … my world? Why?"

Tyler asked.

"Yes, destroy your world. It is father's bidding. It would have happened long ago if it weren't for people like your friend Stuart."

"You mean there are more people who can do what Stuart does?"

Tyler said, now slightly distracted from the fact he's locked up.

"Yes, there are, but your friend is nothing like any of them. He seems connected to us, unlike any other human. But he is also different in the respect that he's one of the few who's ever been foolish enough to even tell someone about the gift, let alone bring someone back and someone in. But it's not like we're complaining. After all, he's our ticket out of here. Now then, we have to go to make sure your friend is nice and drained by the time he gets here. We wouldn't want to drag out this little fight. That is, if he even makes it here… Have fun."

Tyler looked utterly bewildered and said nothing, so they left him in his cell alone. He knew he must get out, but he couldn't control the darkness, so he was trapped.

"I have to think… how am I going to get out of here? Come on think… think… think."

Tyler said to himself, as if it was going to somehow make him have a brilliant idea. But sadly, he came up with nothing. Tyler was now pacing back and forth. It had been about a day or two when on the back wall appeared a dark portal and a voice that brought a smile to Tyler's face.

"Come with me if you ever want to get out of here."

Tyler walked into the darkness without a second's hesitation as soon he saw him it was. It was Riku, but in Xehanort form.

"I would have gotten you earlier, but I was being followed. My name's Ansem."

Started Riku, but Tyler interrupted him and said.

"No it's not… You're Riku."

Tyler said with a hint of awe and relief

"Thanks for saving me. I thought I would never get out, but there's no time, we need to find my friend. He's probably with Sora looking for me."

Riku just stared at Tyler then said,

"How do you know my name?"

"Um well, ya about that… I know how you were taken over by Ansem and how you had to get Roxas, so ya. But it's not important. We need to find Stu I mean Startux I need to tell him something before it's too late."

"I'm sorry, I can't help you."

Riku said, turning away, seeming ashamed.

"But why….Why can't you help me?"

Tyler whined in desperation.

"I lost track of Sora while I was being chased by the Organization. They seem to have gotten much stronger all of a sudden. And if you're right and he is with Sora, I can't let Sora see me. Not like this… But I am looking for him so I can help him from the shadows at the very least. I could use your help."

Riku fell silent.

"You know what? I think I will help you. But only on one condition."

Riku looked up at Tyler and said,

"What would that be?"

"You have to stop hiding from Sora."

Tyler said firmly, making Riku look very taken aback.

"But I can't let him see me like this."

Riku protested clearly torn between wanting to see Sora again and not wanting to be seen himself.

"You just don't get it do you? It really doesn't matter what you look like… You and Sora are best friends and that will never change, no matter what. All Sora really wants is to find you and know that you're ok. I know that, because that's what friends are for, to be there when you need them most. Don't let Sora down… Now promise me, if you want my help, you have to let Sora know you're all right."

"Ok… I promise"

Tyler's words made Riku give in. He knew Tyler was right.

"Ok, let's get going. Where should we go first?"

Asked Riku

"I don't know, I know where he would be if anywhere else, but I doubt he would be there with my luck. No, I think we should check the last place I would think to look."

"And where would that be?"

Asked Riku

"Twilight Town, he always said how much he hated having to be there for the beginning."

Tyler answered nearly blowing his cover.

"Beginning… What do you mean beginning? Beginning of what?"

Riku asked, not understanding.

"Um, never mind. I'll tell you later."

Tyler said quickly.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: Reunited

"We've looked everywhere. Damn it, he's not here! I was so sure of it too. We should go somewhere else I guess."

Tyler and Riku had gone to Twilight Town in search of me, but I was currently at Olympus Coliseum with Hercules.

"Ok, where to next?"

Riku asked. But before Tyler could answer, a man in a black hooded cloak appeared in front of them without warning. They raised their weapons,

"Relax, I'm not here for a fight… you're lookin' for Sora and that Startux kid right? Well I know where they are."

The figure exclaimed in a calm cocky voice as he raised his hands

Still holding their weapons up, the figure lowered his hood.

"Axel?"

Tyler questioned, still holding his key blade up, not daring to lower it for fear this was a trick.

"What do you want?"

Riku demanded, raising his Key Blade threateningly.

"I told you, I'm here to help you find your friends."

Axel repeated.

"Do you think we would fall for that? You're part of the Organization. This is probably just a trap."

Riku said, getting ready to fight.

"No, you got it all wrong. I'm not with the Organization anymore. Something happened to the others and they started to act funny. Then one day Saïx and Xemnas decided they didn't need the rest of us. So they started taking us out… I barely escaped. Actually it all started right after you and your friend showed up. I may not have a heart, but that doesn't mean I don't care about living and taking care of myself."

(Nobodies are shells of strong hearted people who have been turned into heartless. They lose all emotions but can remember how they felt to have them)

Axel pointed out in his defense.

"You're lying!"

Riku yelled as he charged at Axel. But before Riku attacked, Tyler stepped between them and said,

"Riku no, he's telling the truth. If you can't trust him, trust me."

Riku stopped and said,

"But he's a Nobody, he can't be trusted!"

"Trust me, he's not lying, but he's not telling us why he helping us. It looks like we're not the only people who have lost their friends. Isn't that right, Axel? You missed Roxas and you were hoping you could get him back by getting close enough to Sora."

Axel looked absolutely stunned.

"What would make you think a thing like that?"

Axel asked with his head cocked to one side.

"I know that you were close to Roxas and that you want to see him again. He made if feel like you had a heart. But what you don't seem to get is he never left, he's always there in Sora you don't need to make him a Nobody to see him, trust me. I can even be your friend if you want me to. Now, where are Sora and my friends?"

Tyler said to Axle who looked down after his cover was blown. You could see some emotion of sadness in his eyes which shouldn't be there.

"He's going back to Hallow Bastion. If we go now we might find him."

Axel muttered realizing he wouldn't get his way, but Riku still looked unsure. Then, out of nowhere came dozens of the Giga Heartless, as they were now being called. There was also another new heatless. They Had large arms and seems to just float there.

"Look out!"

Axel shouted as he pushed Tyler out of the way as one of the Heartless whip-like tongues nearly took his head off. The three of them drew their weapons and stood back to back, as they were surrounded.

"Trust me now?"

Axel Grimaced as the three of them leaped from each other at the surrounding Heartless.

"Let's party!"

Axel bellowed as he shot flames in multiple directions, incinerating anything in their path.

"Come on!"

Riku shouted, cutting down three Heartless then blowing them away with a dark blast.

"Isn't this romantic?"

(If you are confused about this line it is something one of the characters says in combat that just is awkward)

Tyler cried out, sticking his key blade through one of the Heartless' head, making it explode, but also making both Axel and Riku stop and look at him funny.

"Umm… It sounded like something good to... Say at the…. I'll be quiet now."

The battle, though short, was not easy. All three were winded after.

"So, you gonna to trust me now?"

Axel said panting, but a strange darkness started to surround them.

"Crap. They are trying to engulf this world in a new kind of darkness. We have to go now or we will be stuck here."

Axel said as the shadow steadily moved towards them.

"I don't know about this, but I guess we have no choice. Let's go."

And with that, the three of them left and appeared at Hallow Bastion, just outside of Merlin's house. There were voices coming from inside and then Tyler heard it.

"We're not going fast enough. We need to hurry. I just have to find Xetryl… I can't let him get hurt."

It was me. I had grown impatient and wanted to carry on the search for Tyler. Tyler went for the door and opened it up. Every one inside went quiet and turned to see who had opened the door. When I saw him I couldn't do anything but stare.

"Looking for me?"

"…Whu?"

Was all I could get out.

"Yeah, it's me and I'm not alone. Sora, come on outside. There are some people here to see you.

"Oh my god, Tyler you're ok… Who, how… What happened?"

I bleared out as I attempted to form words, but couldn't.

"Come outside and I will explain."

So we all followed him outside to find the two black hooded figures. We all drew are weapons, but we were stopped by Tyler. Tyler had Riku come first. I knew who it was right away, even though he looked just like Xehanort, but Sora broke down, like in the game. I was still in shock that after a week of looking, Tyler found me.

"I should go."

Axel said, turning away from Sora.

"No stay, you helped me find my friend, and you have friends here. Plus, we could really use your help with the Organization. Not to mention that you have nowhere to go. You will be safer with us."

Tyler said in protest, pulling Axel back.

"Fine, ok. I'll stay, just let go, geez… messing up my clothes."

Axel complained.

"Sora, come here. This is Axel."

"Um, hi."

Sora muttered, still shaken by the fact that he just found Riku.

"Hey."

Axel said awkwardly. They started talking and soon as they seemed comfortable, we went back inside. After everyone settled down, we started to talk about what had happened while we were separated. I told Tyler how Midna and I had been traveling from world to world trying to save him by making it to the World That Never Was, and he told me how he had searched for me in Twilight Town that was apparently much bigger that it was in the game and about how Duma, Zephon and who knows how many other evil entities had taken over the Organization making them stronger. We knew we had to kill them, because apparently it was a job of people like me, but I wasn't complaining I wanted revenge... No one makes me cry and gets away with it.

It didn't even dawn on me at the time to wonder about whom else could have the power I did. We all had become exhausted in the week of searching. We took a break in Hallow Bastion for a few days, taking turns on look out for any other surprise attacks. Midna had other matters in her own world, so she had left us for now. It went on like this until one day, while Tyler and I were on our patrol shift, a one-winged man with long silver hair and a giant katana came down in front of us.

"You two, where's Cloud?"

It was Sephiroth, and he was even more menacing in person as he was in the game, but I didn't let that stop me from being a cocky bastard. In all honestly I should have nearly crapped myself.

"Why should we tell you?"

I said, drawing my sword pointing it at him, thunder encircling my body. Sephiroth's Theme started to play in the background and I knew it was on. I was itching for a fight, because things were really quite boring in Hallow Bastion since we had been there.

"Shut up, Stuart."

Tyler whispered to me but I ignored him.

"Even if we told you where he was, you're no match for him Sephie, you're pathetic. Come on, you can't even afford a second wing. I'm surprised you don't fly like a retarded penguin with a jet pack."

I mimicked a penguin flying around and crashing into a wall.

"You have just signed your death warrant. You should have learned to hold your tongue, but it is too late for that. Now you will die!"

Sephiroth threatened calmly as he raised his sword and lunged at me. Ready for it I parried his sword and jumped back as Tyler did the same.

"Good job dumb ass, now he's gonna kill us!"

Tyler yelled as he drew his key blade and going into Final form, not wanting to risk getting killed.

"Calm down Tyler, we can take him."

I said, following Dante's Number One rule of fighting. Show no fear, no matter how screwed you probably are. He then darted towards me with a lightning fast slash, but I defended myself and countered him with a swipe of my blade sending sparks at him. With every strike I made, he parried. We were fighting in midair, me rebounding off of walls until a heavy blow sent me crashing to the ground, breaking the cement like a crater.

Tyler jumped in right before the final strike and continued the assault now gliding around Sephiroth with final form, attacking Sephiroth from every angle but not landing a single blow. Tyler was soon knocked from the air into me knocking me back down. My spider sense went off and the reason why was the swirling vortex of death that Sephiroth was creating and trying to draw us in to. I only had seconds to act.

"REFLEGA!"

I screamed as Tyler and I were engulfed in the mass of swirling black ball of doom.

"Pathetic fools."

Sephiroth said as he turned to leave, not seeing Tyler and I standing up just fine through the dispersing cloud of smoke. I took this chance to get him. I jumped up right above Sephiroth kicking him in the back of his head, slamming his face to the ground.

"Xetryl, now!"

I called to Tyler. Tyler shot straight at Sephiroth and used his key blade to send him into the wall, making it come crashing down on top of him. I just had time to move away from Tyler as he went to punch me, barely missing me.

"You're such dick head. Why would you do something like that? We could have died!"

Tyler yelled, swinging at me again.

"Were fine, if we got in any real trouble I would have gone all devily and stuff."

I shrugged as I jumped away from Tyler's bone breaking blow. Then from the wreckage arose Sephiroth, dusting his shoulder off.

"Not bad, but no matter how many times you knock me down you will never win. Now you will die."

Sephiroth glared at us with like white hot fire.

"We're fucked aren't we?"

Tyler growled under his breath waiting for me to go into devil trigger form.

"Sigh…yeah probably."

I mumbled to Tyler but I was cut off by two hooded figures.

"Who are you? Stay away unless you wish to die as well."

But before he could finish, he was tossed aside and cut in half with a quick slash of Dumas Claymore.

"We have finally found you. What are you still doing here? We expected to find you some were more… interesting."

It was Zephon and Duma, and they had tossed Sephiroth aside like a toy.

"It's time to let us out Stuart. Now come on, we will make it fast if you don't resist."

I raised my sword but was knocked back by a darkness blast, as was Tyler. They were coming for us and we were not ready to fight them yet. They were nearly to us, their eyes glowed bright white. They had stopped as a wall of fire rose between us.

"Get the hell out of here! I'll hold them back, just save your selves!"

It was Axel.

"Axel, no don't! You can't win this fight!"

I pleaded to Axel. He had become our friend now and we needed to protect him.

"I know that, but you guys need to live. I'm a nobody, I don't even exist so is no biggy, now go! I'll hold them back as long as I can!"

Then flames shot even closer to us, making have to step back. The flames chased us to Merlin's house. We could see the enormous flames shooting from the direction of the fight.

"We have to go, now! Xemnas is here and he's after us! If we stay it will put everyone here in danger!"

I shouted as I ran through the door. Everyone looked at us, but we had planned for this. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Riku all got up as Tyler and I followed them to the Gummi ship. We had lifted off, but as we left we saw Axel from the ship and Zephon and Duma just walking through the flames straight at him.

"We can't leave! We have to help him, now land this thing!"

I yelled as I look down at Axel.

"No! There's nothing we can do, he's doing this to save us. Don't let his sacrifice be in vain."

Tyler said, holding back the urge to join me in wanting to go back. We turned on the ships camera so that we could get a better view of what was happening on the ground.

"What a bothersome pest. Let's do away with this nuisance fast so we may leave."

Zephon said to Duma.

"Damn, doesn't look like I'm going to make it out of this one. May as well go out with a bang?"

Axel told himself and stopped shooting flames.

"Given up just like the rest of your Organization friends, have we?"

Said Duma. Axel showed no sign of fear, partly on account that he couldn't because the lack of a heart, but mostly because he was going to save his friends.

"Hey Xemnas, I quit your little gang and I saved the only friends I got, so I don't know who you're talking about. Oh yeah by the way…fuck you! Got it memorized?"

These words would be Axel's last. He then put all his being into a final attack. We had started to leave when an enormous blast shook the Gummi ship. The screen went black and we all rushed to the window to see what had happened. Axel had unleashed his final attack and it had demolished the entire Bailey. A plume of smoke engulfed the area, debris littered the ground and as the smoke cleared the two figures stood just as they were moments ago dusting off the rubble.

"Cough, we lost him again! Damn it! Now what will we do?"

Roared Duma. We could still hear them but could not see on our screen.

"Patience Duma, we shall will have him soon enough. We have gotten the boy moving along like I had planned, so do not worry."

Zephon replied in a deadly calm voice that was quite the opposite of Duma.

"We were so close! I hate having to wait."

Duma replied in an irritated tone.

"Patience Duma. He will not leave. He is searching for a way to destroy us as we speak. He wants to find us, and when he does, we will leave nothing to chance. We will take him then and there."

Zephon said, watching us fly away with an evil smile.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: Yo Ho

The Gummy ship was quiet for hours as we traveled through space aimlessly, until Tyler broke the silence.

"DAMN IT! I couldn't save him. Those bastards will pay!"

Tyler said slamming his hand down on the armrest, tears filling his eyes.

"It's not your fault. There was nothing you could do."

Riku said, holding back his feelings of sorrow. I looked at everyone in the ship, Donald and Goofy both looking down solemnly, Sora crying, having found out two days earlier of how his nobody Roxas and Axel were best friends and becoming his friend in the process. Riku looked cold and full of grief, and Tyler staring blankly out the window into nothingness. I sighed and said,

"We have to move on or Axel's sacrifice will have meant nothing… Sora… Riku... Donald… Goofy. You guys have to go back and make sure everyone's ok at Hallow Bastion's. Xetryl and I will go on ahead to the next world and continue unlocking pathways."

There was no protest. So we were dropped off at the next world and given our own ship for when we were to leave. We had arrived in a world much like our own, but older.

"Agh!"

A scream pierced through the night air, snapping us out of our gloom. We soon realized that pirates were attacking. We ran down and saw Barbosa talking to Pete.

"Not you again! Hey, where's the brat with the Key Blade?"

Pete said.

"Right here."

Tyler said, raising his blade pointing it at Pete.

"So you're the little ones causing this 'err Pete all 'is trouble."

('err = here)

Barbosa boasted as he looked at us.

"Our names are Xetryl and Startux. You best not fight us unless you wish to die Barbosa. Now stand aside."

Tyler said coldly brandishing his fangs.

"Har har har, so ye 'errd of me 'av ye?"

(Translation if you can't read pirate talk "So you've heard of me have you?")

"No, I think I'll stay just where I am thanks. Boy's … half yee show these scabrous dogs why we pirate ought to be feared. The rest of you. go and indulge in some good old fashion piratin' in town and bring me that medallion"

Barbosa said as he left to the town.

"Bad move."

I said, shaking my head as half of the pirates followed their captain into town. It only took a few seconds for the moon to show through the clouds to and let us see the pirates for what they really were. Tyler had already started walking for town as I raised my hand pointing it towards the cursed pirates. They were confused, but before any of them could even come towards me they dropped dead. I had shot them with a single bolt of thunder that arced through each pirate.

I followed Tyler across the bridge, but we were soon stopped by about a dozen Heartless. There were about six Giga Heartless and a new type. The new ones that came at us looked similar to Neo Heartless, but bigger with long limbs that ended with razor sharp claws. They were much faster than normal, but not as hard to kill. Tyler was having trouble hitting them because of their speed. I named them Hyper Shadow because they reminded me of how I get when I have too much sugar.

Tyler had become very skilled at killing the Giga Heartless by using their big slow moving bodies to his advantage, but the new Hyper Shadow presented a new threat. The Hyper shadow seemed like they were made specifically to kill Tyler because they would not leave him alone and were too fast for him. I was the only reason Tyler was still alive and vice versa.

He and I were forced back across the bridge when I took out the twins and started firing. Having no room to dodge they had no chance to avoid my bullets. There frail bodies, not built for defense like the Giga's, died much easier. Then came the Giga.

"I got 'em."

Tyler said as he slid under one, cutting it from head to tail as he burst through the others, now trying to cross the bridge all at once. It was actually quits comical watching Tyler pile them on top of each other, as they had no chance to attack on the bridge, let alone avoid his blade. It was over within a few seconds, and we carried on across the bridge.

"Elizabeth!"

Will Turner shouted as I watched them take her to their ship and leave.

"Damn, now we're too late now we have to go and find her…fuck!"

I said to myself.

"You there! You must help me save Miss Swan. I saw you fighting those evil shadow monsters and I know you can help me. Will you?"

"Aren't you even going to ask us are names before you ask us for help? You don't even know who we are and you trust us."

I replied sarcastically.

"Oh yes, sorry I am Will Turner. And who might you be?"

Will said, a little taken aback.

"I'm Startux and this is Xetryl and yes we're planning on saving Elizabeth, even if you didn't ask us for help."

I told him.

"Thank you. Let's be off, we have little time."

He replied gratefully. So we ran off to the dock to find only one ship undamaged but not unoccupied. We walked up to it then came a drunken,

"Oy, Oo goes there?"

(Hey who goes there?)

With all the excitement at Hallow Bastion and Axel's death both Tyler and I had completely forgotten who lived in this world.

"OH MY GOD IT'S JACK SPARROW!"

Tyler said, astonished at both the fact it was Jack and that he had forgotten about him.

"_**Captain**_Jack Sparrow if you please."

Jack said as he walked down the plank to see whom he was talking to. Tyler just stared for a little while then said

"…Oh my god you're Jack Sparrow."

"Captain, Captain Jack Sparrow …and oo might you lads be?"

Jack said as he eyeballed us carefully.

"Oh um, I'm Xetryl this is Startux and he is..."

Tyler paused.

"Will Turner."

Will went on saying,

"Jack, we need your help. You know where the pirates took Miss Swan and you need to take us there."

But Jack said,

"I see no profit in it for me mate."

At that moment Midna appeared from my shadow.

"So, what have I missed?"

She said, looking from me to Tyler. Jack and Will both stared at her mainly because of her pail completion but then Jack went on and said,

"Will this, err, lass be accompanying you… If I am to guide you?"

I looked at him, confused, and answered.

"Yeah, But what's that got to do with anything?"

But he merely answered,

"No time to chat. Let's go."

So we left. It was not a short voyage, as I had hoped. It was boring on the ship; Tyler had slept most of the time, other than to eat. Will kept himself busy by working on the ship, Jack in his off time tried in vain to seduce Midna, I even heard him use the "I can perform a marriage." Line. Midna loved the attention, so she milked it, but it seemed I was the only one planning on how to destroy Duma and Zephon. I had noticed that every one of their Heartless had its weakness, so they must have their own. I hadn't seen enough of them to know about theirs.

The whole trip took a day and a half of sailing, until we finely reached the Isle De Muerta. We had made the plan to have Jack and Will rescue Elizabeth and we would wait outside. It didn't take long for Will to emerge from the cave with Elizabeth, running. I told him to let her go to the ship with Midna and that we should go back and end it. He nodded and I took the medallion from Elizabeth and gave it to Will, and then told him it was his blood they needed and he put a few drops of blood on it.

We ran up the cave entrance as quickly as possible without losing Will. When we entered, we found the main treasure room was found it to be empty. We walked in and saw the chest; Tyler walked to it and examined it. He seemed to be entranced by it, but I was looking around for any sign of Jack or the pirates when I saw Will and Jack being held hostage by Barbosa and about two dozen pirates.

"Many thanks for bestowing exactly what we be searching for. We would 'av 'add a 'ard time looking for it ourselves. Now, if yee please 'and that there medallion over and we might let you cullies live."

(once again what he said is "Many thanks for bestowing exactly what we are looking for. We would have had a hard time looking for it ourselves. Now, if you please hand that there medallion over and we might let you cullies live."… fucking Pirate talk.)

Barbosa said.

"What do you mean this? Why do you want this?"

I said, mockingly holding out the gold piece.

"Do you even know what that is? It's a…"

But before he could continue Tyler started on walking away from the chest.

"It's a piece of cursed Aztec gold, one of eight hundred and eighty two identical pieces delivered in a stone chest to repay the bloodshed from the slaughter by Cortez to the heathen Gods. Now, until every coin is brought back with the blood to be repaid, food will turn into ash in your mouths, the wine along with pleasurable company will not satisfy, and you turn into creepy skeleton corpses when the moonlight shines on you, does that about sum it up?"

(and FYI he would say that because he knows it by heart lol.)

Barbosa looked confused.

"Well then, I guess yee do know, but that doesn't change the fact that we 'ave them and you 'ave it. Now 'and it over or they'll be 'aven a rather bad day."

Barbosa said.

"Fine, here you go. But let them go first."

Barbosa cocked his head and said.

"Fine. On three then, one, two, three."

We traded Will and Jack for the bloody medallion.

"Now then hold these whelps while I set us free from this wretched curse."

Barbosa said to colossal cheers from the pirates as he tossed the coin into the chest.

"Finely we be free!"

Barbosa began his speech as Tyler and I let the pirates take hold of us. They took my sword, which electrocuted the pirates that held it, killing them.

"Barbosa, this is your last chance to give up."

Tyler said looking at him as he walked up to him.

"You're the lad with the big mouth, now aren't yee?"

Barbosa said, getting closer to Tyler nearly to him.

"I won't warn you again."

But before Tyler could finish, he was stabbed through the stomach. Somehow the blade pierced his venom suit, letting it go straight through him.

"Tyler, no!"

I said as I saw Barbosa remove his blade and Tyler dropping to his knees. I couldn't move out of pure shock. I was in shock when I heard his voice. Not weak as you would expect from someone who was just stabbed, but casual with a sign of boredom.

"Why couldn't you just give up?"

Tyler said as he rose as if being pulled up by strings without raising his head. As he walked towards Barbosa the moonlight shone on his body, showing a rotting skeleton. As it stepped to Barbosa it drew its weapons and cut the pirates head clean off. He then turned to the rest of the pirates. They fled yelping and screaming like cowards except Jack and Will.

"Don't do that to me! I thought you were a goner for sure."

I said with a breath of relief.

"Yeah, I knew you would worry, but that was payback for starting a fight with Sephiroth."

Tyler said with an eerie smile.

"You bitch! That wasn't funny. I was scared… You know you can't stay like that right."

I said in annoyance.

"But, but, but… Ok, fine."

Tyler said as he cut his hand a little, putting the blood on the coin then placing it in the chest. We then walked to the ship getting Midna back and watching as Elizabeth run to Will, hugging him. Then Jack's compass started to glow and Tyler unlocked the path to the new world.

"Ok, we have to get going ok? Jack, Will you guys going to be all right without us."

I asked as we watched them board the ship.

"Yes. Thanks for all your help, we owe you are life. If there is anything we could do to repay you, please just ask."

Will said.

"What about me? I didn't get anyfing ought of vis."

Jack said looking at Midna who was smiled at me.

"You got your ship back that should be payment enough for you Jack."

Elizabeth said, eyeballing him coldly for being lustful.

"Yes, well I guess that's all I shall get for this little trip. Now if you don't mind I'll be going on my way."

And with that Jack sailed off in the Black Pearl, as did Will and Elizabeth with the Interceptor. I called the ship to us, and as it landed, and the hatch opened a small figure walked out. It was the king. He looked from me to Tyler then back again.

"I'm guessing you two are Xetryl, Startux and Princess Midna hum."

We were shocked to finally meet King Mickey.

"Um yeah, I'm Startux that's Midna and this is Xetryl, so why are you here?"

"I am here to update you guys on the situation at Hallow Bastion. Sora, Donald, and Goofy left to some of the previous worlds they visited with you, Startux."

I interrupted.

"But what about the guys at Hallow Bastion? Are they ok?"

"Xemnas was pretty angry, but he didn't hurt anyone. Everyone is fine, everyone except… I'm sorry… We looked all over but he demolished the whole Bailey… the only thing we could find was this."

The king handed Tyler a key chain that held the bonds of flame. Tyler looked at it and attached it to his key blade, turning it into a key blade imbued with the power of flame. "We should get going."

Tyler said, withdrawing his new key blade.

"King, could you go get Sora and the others while we go to the next world? I think we should be sticking together as much as possible. We are almost to the World That Never Was and we need to be ready for the big fight."

I said to the king. Then he replied.

"Sure thing, but you guys should know. There's a problem with some of the worlds. They're disappearing into the dark. I just came from two I was trying to save but couldn't. I barely escaped, so be careful."

Tyler and I both looked concerned and asked,

"What worlds were destroyed?"

"Quite a few, sadly. The only ones left are Hallow Bastion, Twilight Town, Beast's Castle, the Coliseum and my castle, and there's the one that hasn't been explored yet. But it's kinda far and there's lots of Heartless ship's looking for you guys. I'll go and get the others so you get to the new world as fast as possible, good luck and good bye for now."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Hi Tech to No Tech

We set off to the last world. Midna and Tyler were relaxing as I flew the ship. Mickey had been right it was far, we had been flying for hours. Tyler had been examining his new key blade and the powers that came with it, the power to manipulate fire. He was experimenting with the powers making little shaped and little figures with flames and Midna was reading a rather old looking book.

"No."

I growled in astonished terror as we came to what was Halloween Town. All that remained was a shriveled black smoldering rock.

"They won't get away with this. Now they have gone too far. Destroying worlds just to get us, and Halloween Town of all places."

I snarled angrily.

"And to make things worse they killed Santa!"

Tyler added sounding equally angry. Then, out of nowhere a huge explosions that shook the entire ship.

"Stuart what did you do now?"

Midna said as she dropped the book.

"It wasn't me!"

I muttered, looking around seeing laser blast all around us.

"I think were under attack."

Tyler said as he looked out the back.

"Where the fuck did that come from and why is there no radar on this thing? Get to the turrets and lock yourself in. I know some maneuvers. We'll lose em'."

But when I turned around we saw a huge command ship accompanied by entire fleet of Heartless ships.

"Holy Crap! There's no way that we can out fly that."

I said flying through a barrage of laser blasts.

"What should we do?"

Tyler said as he shot at some oncoming ships.

"Let me think, let me think… Well were not getting out without a fight…So I say we go for it and try to take out the command ship. It looks like its controlling the rest of the ships with that huge antenna. If we take that down the rest will most likely go off line or run or something. At least that's how it usually works in games like this."

"Stuart you're fucking crazy, you know that?"

Tyler sighed shaking his head.

"Yeah (shrug) ….. So shall we go?"

I shrugged casually.

"Hey, you're the only one who can drive this thing… it's up to you. Just don't get us killed, okay?"

Tyler said, shaking his head and thinking this was crazy because, well, it was. Tyler and Midna were firing at the swarms of enemies around me when Tyler shot one that would have killed us.

"Thanks, what would I do without you?"

I said with a sigh.

"Um, die."

Tyler said plainly. We had made it to the command ship. It was like the Millennium Falcon against an Imperial Cruiser. We had flown around it, firing everywhere; but nothing seemed to hurt it. Then I saw it was a glowing spot on the underside of the ship. It was what a cannon, the cannon that was destroying the planets; the cannon that destroyed Halloween Town.

"There's our target."

I said to Tyler and Midna as I made a pass by the now exposed cannon. The entire Heartless fleet was chasing us, explosions surrounding us as we span and twirled while shooting at the cannon. It was definitely damaging the ship.

"Do a barrel roll!" (Yeah I went there. What it had to be here somewhere)

Midna said as some missiles came at us from behind. Then one of the stray missiles hit the fuel tank of the command ship triggering explosions throughout it. I had turned to leave as it exploded, making me lose control of the ship. Our ship shook so much I thought it was going to fall apart. I had lost all control of the ship and we were spinning into the atmosphere of the planet the ship was about to destroy.

We crash landed in the new world that we were looking for, but are ship was totaled. We had blacked out for who knows how long. Midna was the first to wake up. It took us a few minutes to realize where we were and came to our senses.

"Well that was fun."

Midna laughed as she unbuckled her seat belt then stood up.

"Ugh, where are we?"

Tyler groaned, massaging his head.

"I think we're in the Pride Land. Let's go and unlock the last passage way, and let's hope the others get here soon."

I said to Tyler and Midna as I unbuckled my seat belt. No sooner had we left the Gummi ship then had are bodies changed into are beast forms. It was a familiar sensation to Midna and I being that we had spent half of our time as a wolf and an imp in Twilight Princess. I was low to the ground and my clothes and weapons had disappeared. I looked at Tyler and saw a black, nearly full-grown lion. He had retained some of his features but looked menacing until he tried to walk that is. He tripped over his own feet many times and just couldn't get the hang of it. Midna and I just laughed even though I knew what he was going through.

Then the three hyenas came out of the opening.

"Hey, what have we got here?"

Banzai said with Ed just laughing in the back ground.

"Looks like we got lion and a…. say, what are you and what's on your back?"

Shenzi asked looking at me very confused. Then I realized I was not a lion. I was in my wolf form and Midna was on my back as an imp. They must not know what a wolf is because wolves don't live in Africa.

"Looks like a deformed dingo, don't you think Ed?"

Banzai said, looking for a laugh.

"Looks like you guys are just in time for lunch."

I looked at Tyler and realized that he wouldn't be able to fight yet, let alone run because he was still not used to being on all fours. I made the decision to just take them out now.

"Oo lunch sounds great right now. I wonder what we're having."

I snarled sarcastically as I bared my teeth at them. Tyler still looked unsteady on his feet so I took charge and said.

"Xetryl get back, let me and Midna take care of them, ready Mid?"

It felt like I was back in Twilight Princess as Midna let out a giant shadow circle around me catching the three hyenas inside of it. Then she released her magic circle and my body moved almost on its own from one hyena to another as I tackle each of them, tearing their throats out, killing them.

"Well that was over a little quick."

Midna said now standing up on me to get a good look around.

"Tyler you getting the hang of four legs yet?"

I called to him.

"Yeah I think I got it, but what about are weapons? Where did they go?"

Tyler asked.

"Oh I took Stuart's and you still have your ring, but you just can't see it. That's part of its magic."

Midna said as she made Alastor along with Ebony and Ivory appear out of nowhere, floating in front of me.

"Ok, so we still have them, but how are we going to use them?"

Tyler went on.

"Let me thing for a second… well you can do what Sora dose and use it in your mouth… but what will I do? I can't hold it in my mouth because Alastor is too heavy for that."

I said, thinking out loud.

"Hey why don't you let me use them? Eee hee."

Midna said suddenly.

"Ok, but be careful. The twins have a bit of a kick, that is, if you can use them, they should work if I'm just close to them. Fire off a few rounds and see."

I told Midna as she took hold of the two handguns and the sword with their hair. I was surprised she could even hold the twins because they were almost as long as her arms. She shot at the wall a few times.

"Wow, these things really jump out of your hands if you're not careful, don't they? Eee hee."

She giggled with a grin. She put one of them away and held Ebony with two hands.

"Ok let's go and get Simba back to the throne. We need to hurry up so we can get those assholes Zephon and Duma for all the shit they've pulled."

Tyler roared.

"Ok, lead the way."

I said as Tyler went past. It was funny watching Tyler fight. He kept trying to talk but all that came out was muffles because he had a key blade in his mouth. He quickly gave it up for his flames alongside his fangs and claws. We were at the Pried Land's Savanna. We were running as fast as we could. We had reached the oasis and soon heard a huge roar. We rushed in the direction where it came from and saw him. I gestured stop pointing my snout at him to Tyler then said.

"Simba, we need your help."

But Simba just looked at us, as if ready to pounce.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

But before we could answer, Sora and the gang came out of the clearing with Nala.

"Guys, we got a problem."

Donald said as they rush too are sides.

"We know. Scar is"

Tyler started to say, but was interrupted.

"No it's not Scar, he was killed by Heartless."

Then Nala went on saying,

"And everyone else will be too if we don't hurry."

"Everybody holed on who are you guys?"

Simba said in a commanding voice.

"You don't remember us after all we went through? It's us Sora, Donald and Goofy and they are Startux, Xetryl and Midna. You should at least recognize Nala."

Sora said, now sounding worried, which worried me in turn. I've never seen Sora act like this before in or out of the game.

"Sora, Donald, Goofy, Nala it is you. How are you guys?"

Simba beamed, elated to be reunited with his old friends.

"Simba…we need your help the Pride Lands are being overrun by monsters, and we need as much help as possible."

Nala said in a desperate voice.

"I can't go back."

Simba said, sadly looking away from us in shame.

"Damn it Simba it's not your fault that your dad died, it was Scars. He killed your dad, not you. Plus, he's dead and they will need a new leader, and that leader is you. We know you can do it, just have faith in yourself. Now stop feeling sorry for your furry ass and help out!"

I said, wanting to see if everything was as bad as Sora made it look to be.

"What…. What do you mean Scar killed him?"

Simba said looking up.

"Exactly what I said, Scar killed your dad. He threw him off that cliff. But that doesn't matter right now, if what they say is true we need to go now. There's no time to explain."

I said seriously as possible.

"We all need you… Don't let us down… Don't let me down. Simba we know you can do it."

Nala said as she looked into his eyes. Simba looked around as if thinking and then said.

"Ok, let's go."

With a look of responsibility and duty that gave us all courage and somehow made us all feel stronger as we rushed back to the savanna. On the way back we began to encounter more and more Heartless, but we didn't bother with them because they were only normal ones. We had reached the Pride Land and there they were.

Hundreds of Heartless just sitting there waiting for us. There were three kinds of Heartless that I didn't recognize, so I gave them quick names for what they looked like. Shadow beasts, Bone lions and there was one huge dragon in the middle that seemed to be the leader. It saw us, then smiled and raised one mammoth arm and pointed at us, as if daring us to come. We stopped and stared back, than we all charged at them not separate like in Hallow Bastion but as one. The dragon raised his wings and took off flying just about a hundred feet of the ground it looked like he was just planning on watching for now. It arm shot up commanding the Heartless to attack.

It was the shadow beasts and they were soon upon us. Tyler was to my right, now covered in flames, and was running through the creatures slashing them with his claws. He made three fire slashes with every attack, incinerating each Heartless unlucky enough to get in his way. Sora, Donald and Goofy were fighting them off with much more fury than ever before. They had defiantly become much stronger since are last encounter with each other. Simba and Nala were fighting as if they were one, having one attack while the other defends.

And then there was Midna and I, me making sure we avoiding the Heartless while Midna, on my back and now laughing with the excitement of battle, shot at and cut any that came too close.

Soon the Heartless were all destroyed, all except for one the dragon who had sill done nothing but command the weaker Heartless. It was still hovering above us staring down with its maleficent grin. Then it once again raised its arms and a little ways off an entire new Heartless army shot out of the ground.

"Well, that's not good."

Midna said looking up as the newly formed Heartless army advanced.

"How can we win if he just keeps bringing them back to life?"

Tyler grumbled.

"We have to kill that damn dragon, but how can we? None of us can even reach it!"

I gritted my teeth irritably as the army of darkness drew nearer and nearer.

"Eee hee, did you forget about me? I can fly, but I don't know how I would kill it."

Midna said as the Heartless finally reached us. I suddenly got a brilliant idea.

"The Fused Shadow, do you still have it?"

I said jumping out of the path of a bone lion.

"Yup, sure do. Why didn't I think of that? Will you be ok without me?"

Midna asked as she made the dark headdress appear.

"Yeah, just kill it quick ok."

I said, freezing the shadow beast that had leaped for Tyler, making it shatter when it hit the ground.

"Ok. This is gonna be fun. Eee hee."

Midna said as she rose of my back wearing the fused shadow. She turned into a giant glowing tactical beast right in front of me. I was watching her as she quickly flew to now angry looking dragon. She held the Light Trident in one of her many arms. They just stopped and looked at each other for what seemed like eternity. It was like a show down and all I could think was western music whistle.

"Hehe."

I giggled as I heard it in my head. They moved at the same time, Midna and the dragon colliding in air. Her trident embedded in the dragon's chest, making big black globs of blood fall from the sky. My spider sense went off because I had been paying too much attention to the fight in the sky, but it was too late. I was about to be hit by one of the shadow beast. But right before it hit me I was knocked out of the way by Tyler who had nearly missed it himself.

"What the hell? Pay attention, I can't always be here to save your sorry ass!"

Tyler roared at me. I started fighting again, calling spells out. I looked up at Midna, who was still grappling with the dragon when she suddenly stabbed it in the face with the light trident, making the dragon give a massive howl and fall to the ground on top of many Heartless. The Heartless army suddenly disappeared and the giant dragon fell silent and dissolved away.

"We did it."

I howled to Midna who was now floating back down to us.

"You were great. We couldn't have done it without you."

Simba said with great pride.

"It was my pleasure to help you, my majesty. Eee hee."

Midna replied as she bowed deeply and we all followed her lead.

"I'm not sure if I'm king material guys. The only reason we won is because of you guys, not me."

Simba said, now looking unsure of himself.

"You will make a great king. Don't forget that you're not your dad, so don't expect to be just like him."

Tyler said.

"Your friends are right my son. You must never forget who you are."

It was Mufasa's ghost, the father of Simba and also the voice of Darth Vader but that's not the point. As Mufasa's ghost said this he started to glow. That was Tyler and Sora's cue to unlock the last path way and so they did. We had to leave to get to The World That Never Was, but Simba and Nala protested, trying to get us to stay as long as we could; but we had to leave. We reminded Simba that he would be a great king and then went to Sora's Gummi ship. As each of us walked back on to the ship, we went back to our normal shapes. I suddenly realized something as we took off and said it out loud.

"Hey, was it just me, or were we all just naked that whole time?"

But everybody laughed at it, as if it were a joke, so I just went with it.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen: The Awakening

We hadn't had time in the Pride Land for Sora to fill us in on what was he was doing while we were separated. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had been looking at the previous worlds we had gone to, but when they went to Mickey's Kingdom again they were told to go get us by Mickey. Then Mickey and the rest of the people would meet us in Twilight Town when we finished there.

We passed by the smoldering black rock that was Halloween Town witch made us angry than ever before. We arrived at Twilight Town and made are way to the computer room as fast as we could. We found Cid, Squall, Yuffie, and even Cloud waiting for us in the small room.

"Finally you guys made it."

Squall said coolly.

"Yall took ur sweet time too, didn't ya?"

Cid groaned turning around in the computer chair.

"You took so long Riku and the King decided to go on ahead to scout the place out."

Cid went on.

"They told us to wait here for you guys and go find them soon as you got here so let's vamoose."

Yuffie burst out as she hoped down from the counter top.

"Ok."

I agreed as we all ran through the portal into the World that Never Was, except for Cid who stayed behind to operate the controls. We arrived into a darker and more foreboding version of the World that Never Was. The ground was coated in a thick black fog that hovered around your ankles, as if it was trying to swallow you up. We all ran out of the alley to see a beam of light shooting from the castle directly at Kingdom Hearts. But no sooner had we seen it than the bases of the light came a huge explosion.

"What was that?"

Yuffie asked as the ground shook from the explosion.

"I don't know, but we better go check it out."

Sora said as he and the rest of us started to run towards the castle. We ran to the place where Riku had fought Roxas when we were stopped by the sight of Zephon and Duma.

"So it seems you have arrived. Good, now we can end this little game and free ourselves, but what's this? You brought some tagalongs with you, now we can't have that, can we?"

Zephon said as he summoned dozens of Heartless that stood at attention like solders.

"Who are you calling tagalong?"

Sora shouted angrily, but was completely ignored.

"I'm guessing you have come here to give up."

Duma sneered.

"You wish. Why would we give up to some losers like you?"

I mocked his arrogant voice.

"What did you just say, you little whelp?"

Duma snarled with his eyes filled with rage, but before he moved to attack us Zephon placed a hand on his shoulder and said

"Calm yourself Duma. There is no need to become flustered now. All we want is you three. If you can make it to the top, you will get the honor of being killed by us. But like I said, that is only if you can make it to us. Good luck. Oh, yes don't bother trying to leave because it is our world now. So you're stuck here until you destroy us or we are no longer here."

And with that they disappeared into the black mist. The Heartless they summoned leaped from their spots straight at us. But with on swipe of theirs blades, Squall and Cloud destroyed them all.

"You guys go ahead. We will fight them off here as long as we can!"

Yuffie said as she threw her boomerang through some of the newly spawned Heartless. Sora started to run to the castle, closely followed by Midna, Tyler, Donald and Goofy. But instead of running, I pulled out Eb and Iv and started firing at the Heartless as I slowly walked backwards, not wanting to leave them behind.

"Startux, you have to go! We can handle things here!"

Squall roared as he cut away at the steadily increasing number of Heartless.

"It's time we helped you guys out for once, now go!"

Cloud said calmly as he jumped into the swarming Heartless cutting them away with a wide swing.

"Thanks."

I said as I turned to run after the rest of them.

"Just don't go dieing on us!"

Squall called to me as I turned the corner. I had ran for a while, not stopping to fight any of the Heartless that chased me until I final reached Tyler, Midna and the rest of them. They were stopped in the room where you fight Xibar by dozens of Heartless. There would have been more, but they couldn't fit. I jumped into the air, cutting away at the Heartless that had tried to catch me. I landed behind Tyler.

"So what's the deal? Why haven't we broken through yet?"

I asked Tyler who threw his key blade at the exit, clearing a path. But the path was almost instantly blocked by even more Heartless.

"That's why."

Tyler moaned as he summoned his key blade back and continued to fight the Heartless. They just wouldn't stop pouring into the room. Keeping enough room for us to fight was all we could do.

"Guys, get near me."

Tyler said to everyone and we all surrounded him. And as we did Tyler raised a fire dome, surrounding us. But it was not able to keep out all the Heartless.

"What's this about Tyler?"

I asked.

"This is going nowhere fast. I'm doing this so you guys can come up with a plan. But could you hurry? I can't keep this up forever."

Tyler panted as he focused on keeping the barrier up.

"Well we're not getting out without fighting, that's for sure... Hm, anyone got any bright ideas? How 'bout you Mid?"

I thought out loud as we fought off the Heartless that made it through the fire. But no one had any ideas.

"Well it doesn't look like we're going to make it out of this… Sorry guys."

I said feebly.

"Startux can you take us back to your world?"

Midna suggested, obviously knowing we had run out of choices. But I shook my head and said.

"No, I've tried that already. They weren't bluffing when they said we couldn't leave… but you still can. You can still save yourself by going back in my shadow."

But Midna interrupted me before I could go on.

"Shut up! I would never leave you guys behind. If you guys are going down I'm going with you, got that? Now we have to think of a way out before Tyler's fire wall fails."

But at that, no sooner had she said it than did Tyler fall to one knee and the barrier started to fade.

"Sorry guys, I can't."

But by the time he started to say,

"Keep this up."

The barrier fell completely and there we stood ready for are last stand.

"Ready guys? Let's go out with a bang!"

I said as I prepared to charge. Just as the Heartless were nearly on us a blinding flash came in through the doorway making us shield are eyes.

"What's all this lets go out with a bang crap? You guys aren't giving up already are you?"

It was Riku and he was back in his normal body. Riku and the king entire room was cleared of Heartless and the black smoke that coated the ground earlier. For some reason the Heartless weren't coming out of the doors like they had before… yet.

"You can never lose when you have friends."

Mickey said in an awkwardly bright attitude.

"Riku it's you!"

Sora bellowed running up to him giving him a hug. Suddenly out came a bang as the door we entered from was cracked open by another swarm of Heartless. Riku and the king jumped toward them and told us

"Startux, Midna, Xetryl, it's up to you. There's a barrier that won't let anyone but you three through it up ahead, so it's up to you to end this. Hurry, the barrier is at the top. We will hold them here. The rest of the way should be clear."

We didn't need to be told twice. We started to run up the rest of the castle and soon found the barrier that only we could pass through. I pushed through with no trouble and Tyler and Midna followed me. We looked around, ready to be ambushed, but the top of the tower was empty except for the giant door.

"I guess they're in there."

I said, looking at the looming door. It towered over us like a giant white door thingy. My point is it was a big fucking white Door to Doom.

"Are you ready guys?"

I asked turning to them.

"You know it. Eee hee."

Midna chuckled with an evil grin.

"Let's go."

Tyler nodded. I smiled and turned to the door getting ready to kick it down and said.

"All right then. Let's ROCK!"

But soon as the words left my mouth I stopped.

"Stuart… No, just no."

Tyler said as he shook his head and Midna just rolled her eyes. I was using one of my old mentor Dante's lines and completely failed at saying it.

"But… It sounded cool when Dante said it. Anyway, let's go. We need to finish this."

I said, walking through the door. It was a narrow street that led to a cliff that dropped off hundreds of feet. My eyes rose up to see Duma and Zephon. They were floating above the cliff edge. When they spoke, their voices echoed through the street and seemed to come from everywhere.

"So it seems that you have made it to us after all."

Zephon said as his voice echoed.

"Good, now we will get to have some fun."

Duma said with a snide tone.

"What do you mean by fun, I never realized getting your ass kicked was fun?"

Tyler jested mockingly.

"What? How dare you, you miserable insect! How dare you mock me?"

Duma boomed, obviously hating the fact that we showed no fear, but before he could do anything Zephon grabbed his shoulder and said.

"Duma remain calm, there's no need to get so flustered over them. Soon we shall have the power to leave and you can get your vengeance by killing their families."

But it did nothing to calm Duma down who replied,

"Don't tell me to calm down, Zephon. If you don't care that these miserable worms mock you then fine. But I will not stand for it. I am going to tear them apart."

But we just started to snicker as they started to fight with each other.

"What's so funny?"

Duma yelled as his anger rose.

"You sound like an old married couple. But don't worry, I'm sure you two will sort this out and make up later."

Tyler chuckled wanting to antagonize him even more.

"I will crush you like bugs!"

Duma snarled as he made the building fall around us. We were ready, we ran through the street cutting through the pieces of building that fell. We had made it to a clearing, not too far from the edge of the cliff. We were fine, but the way back was blocked by tons of rubble. Tyler changed into valor form and Midna drew her blades. Duma and Zephon were fighting with each other when we got there.

"Zephon, since you seem so content with letting them walk all over you, you will stay out of this fight. I will take care of them myself and you will stay away and watch. Do you understand me?"

Duma argued, now furious with Zephon.

"Fine. Whatever you say, I shall not interfere with your fight in the slightest. But let's not forget who has created whom, shall we?"

Zephon said calmly as he floated off into the distance to get a good vantage point. He obviously wasn't planning on fighting us any ways. I started to say something witty but was soon stopped by a crashing building that was sent towards me by Duma. He had made all the crushed buildings rise up and encircle us. I changed to Devil trigger and pulled out Alastor, pointing it at Duma with a wide grin.

He sent more buildings toward us, but they moved too slowly to hit us. I jumped from one to another getting closer and closer to Duma, until I was right on top of him. I could feel my heart pounding from the adrenalin as I jumped straight down at him attempting to cut him down the middle but he raised his claymore stopping the blade.

The force of the blow sent him to the ground, cracking the ground below his feet. I landed in the crater with him, but he didn't seem to be affected by my attack. He swung his claymore but I parried it just enough to save my life. I was knocked back into one of the fallen buildings with a rather strong swing of his claymore. The force of the blow sent Alastor flying into a wall. Tyler jumped from his building, flying straight at him with his key blades out in front spinning like propellers. He looked like a comet flying at Duma covered in brilliant scarlet flames. His hair looked like it was aflame and he now had dark rings around his eyes.

Tyler and Duma seemed to be evenly matched, for each attack one made the other countered. Tyler cut through Dumas chest, or so he thought, but he let down his guard for a second allowing Duma to get the upper hand and hit him. The blow sent him sliding on his head nearly sending him off the cliff. Midna came at him everything she had, but every time a spell seemed to make contact, he would shake it off. He threw his claymore at Midna.

"Reflega!"

I said as I shot the spell at her, just making it in time to save her, although the force from the claymore sent Midna flying towards the edge of the cliff. Tyler, acting fast, jumped an caught her just before she fell off. I turned around to see my sword still in the wall and Duma who was the other direction. I ran straight at Duma, who seemed smug. I shot a web line directly behind me onto Alastor's handle, removing it from the wall and sending it soaring behind me. I jumped and let go of my web, having my sword fly straight into his chest. He stumbled backwards and fell.

"You did it."

Tyler said.

"That's what he gets for messing with us."

Midna cheered as Tyler set her down. I walked over to Duma's body and pulled out my sword, pointing it at Zephon who hadn't moved from his spot, which concerned me. Before my spider sense even had a chance to go off I looked back at Duma as he grabbed my leg and threw me right back into the building. I watched Tyler and Midna as I tried to get out of the rubble and as they went right back in the fight. But nothing they seemed to do could stop him. He grabbed Midna by the throat and pinned Tyler down with his claymore having the two spikes at the end of it nailing him to the ground. I looked at them helplessly.

"Hahahahaha! Not so confident now, are you? You really thought you could beat me?"

Duma bellowed, barely containing his glee.

"Let them go you bastard! Take me instead."

I pleaded as he broke out in maniacal laughter. I should have known only sticking a sword threw his chest wouldn't kill him. After all the monsters he summoned took much more than that to kill.

"Let them go!"

I couldn't take it, so I charged him. But he held Midna in front of him, which made me stop. He kicked straight in the chest sending me back. It was hopeless.

"Don't you worry, I haven't forgotten about you. I will get you just your turn, but first, who should I kill? The pretty girl or the smart ass?"

He said as he dug the spikes deeper into Tyler's shoulder making him scream out in pain, but Duma's face lit up like a child at Christmas

"I know what I should do. How about I let you decide who dies. If you do, I'll let one of them live. Or you could save yourself and run. I don't really care, we only need two of you. So… who will it be?"

Duma snickered, his grin growing even wider.

"Don't do it Stuart!"

Tyler screamed in pain.

"Don't listen to him."

Midna said, gasping for air. I didn't know what to do, but I wouldn't pick one of my friends to die.

"Let them go, take me instead."

I pleaded once more, only to have him laugh in my face.

"No, we need you alive. Now choose who will die and who will become my new body."

Duma said, his malevolence growing with every word.

"New body? What do you mean new body? You mean you're going to…?"

My eyes widened now that I realized why they didn't kill Tyler and Midna when they had them in the first place.

"That's right. We use your bodies like portals. Or if we are given enough time to corrupt the story we can get out that way, but that way takes far too long and it's so much more satisfying to take someone's body."

And as he saw my expression his eyes widened and bellowed with laughter,

"How does it feel to be the reason your friends die? Hahahahaha! It seems that I will have to choose for you. Let's see well this one is damaged already and I particularly don't like him, so I think it will be this one. Now witness as I kill your friend!"

It felt like my head was about to explode.

'Speaking of safety, you really shouldn't bring any one with you or even tell them that you have this power. You could lose them in the story or even get them killed and it will be your fault.'

I could hear the hooded man say to me in my head. My body filled with rage at what I had done by bringing my friend with me. My half-devil blood boiled, burning through my veins like fire. I wasn't going to let my friends die because of me. I suddenly lost all control and power surged through my entire body. As Duma raised his claymore to perform a coupe de' grace on Tyler, I shot at him with such speed and force I knocked him through multiple buildings.

My body gave off a red glow from this new power. I had no idea where this power was coming from, but I didn't care. All I knew was that I had to save my friends no matter what the cost. I was above Tyler and Midna who had fallen on the floor. Tyler had two holes in his left shoulder that bled profusely and Midna was laying on the ground gasping for air.

"How dare you touch me?"

Duma barked as he emerged from the rubble, his eyes glowing yellow. I looked at him and in an instant I had him by the throat, his feet dangling and kicking, trying to pry my fingers away. They were digging into his neck, not letting him take a single breath of air. I looked at Saïx and could almost see through him. Inside his body was something moving, as if trying to break free. I thrust my hand into Saïx's chest and pulled out the parasite that was Duma.

It was wearing an old cracked mask that showed one red eye that looked almost familiar. It had the upper body of a puppet, and where its legs would have been there was inky smoke. Ironically enough, it had wings like those of an angel. I dropped Saïx and drew Ivory. The puppet squirmier as I put the barrel to its forehead

"Good bye."

That was the last thing it would ever hear. I shot one single hole through the mask and it went limp. I looked up at Zephon, who looked deadly calm with a hidden pleasure. But before I could even attempt to go for him, a man who looked almost human except for the pale skin and vampiric look appeared out of Xemnas. He looked straight at me and smiled as if he knew I was gonna do this and vanished. I was breathing deep and slow breaths as I turned back to the now dissolving body of Duma, and then to Tyler and Midna.

"You guys ok?"

I said dizzily. Midna was helping Tyler up, who was holding his shoulder. Then she said

"We're fine. Tyler's shoulder is healing already and I will be fine."

I looked up and said.

"Oh… good."

Then everything went black as I fell backwards, unconscious. I awoke to the smell of salt and the sound of waves crashing on a beach. I was in a small shack made of wood. I looked around the small shack that was lit by the sun.

"So you're up… lazy bum!"

Midna said as she leaned over my bed, looking down at me smiling.

"Hey Midna …What happened? Where are we?"

I groaned sitting up and rubbing my head.

"You went berserk after Duma attacked us and you tore something out of him and killed it, but Zephon got away. After that, you made sure we were ok, and then you passed out. Tyler and I had to kill Saïx and Xemnas, who regained their bodies."

Midna said as she recalled the past events.

"Oh yeah, so are you feeling ok?"

But before she could answer me, the door opened and in walked Tyler, Riku, Sora and Kairi.

"Finally you're up! I was wondering how long it would take."

Tyler said as he walked in. At the sight of Kairi I knew where I was Destiny Island.

"How long was I out for?"

I asked, still drowsy.

"About three days. So how ya feelin'?"

Riku told me, lightly punching my arm which helped to wake me up.

"Good?"

I yawned, but I was still tired and wanted to go home to rest in my own bed.

"So is any one going to introduce me?"

It was Kairi who had been standing there with a smile. I looked her with a grin as I started to get out of bed.

"It's ok. I know who you are Kairi, your Sora's girlfriend."

I said teasingly to Sora.

"Hey, she's just my friend who happens to be a girl!"

Sora said at once in his defense, even though he was blushing.

"Wow Sora …You can do lots of things, but lying is not one of them. Anyways, where is everyone else?"

I laughed, trying to change the subject.

"Everyone has gone back to their own world after you guys defeated Xemnas all of the worlds went back to normal."

Answered Riku.

"I guess our work here is done then. I think it's time we got home too."

I scratched my head not sure what to say.

"We can't leave yet, I still have to get something. I will be right back."

Tyler said as he bolted out of the shack.

"So you guys are going then? Too bad."

Sora said sadly.

"Yeah we have been gone far too long and we need to get back, what it's been? Half a year now since we met?"

I said, trying not to think about what had to happen. We had to leave, but when we did it would be like we never were here so if we ever came back they wouldn't remember us. It was hard to keep that thought out because we had grown so close in the time we had been together.

"Oh I almost forgot, I found this and it's you… I think, but I guess it's for you."

Then Kairi held out a piece of paper and handed it to me. I looked at it and instantly I could tell what it was. It was a picture of Midna, Tyler and me drawn by Namine. It made me smile and as I started to say thanks, but then Tyler burst in and said,

"Ok! Now we can go!"

With a giant grin on his face. He held a star shaped Paopu fruit in his arms.

"Who's that for?"

I asked, not sure what he was thinking.

"Um, I wanted to see what it tastes like?"

Tyler shrugged awkwardly so I ignored it.

"Ok, but before we leave I want one look around at this place."

I said as I got out of bed and walked out the door straight to the secret spot where I found all the cave paintings. I don't know what caused me to do this, but I wrote STM on the wall. I walked back out and saw everyone standing there.

"Will we ever see you again?"

Sora asked hopefully as Tyler and Midna walked to my side to face them.

"I don't really know."

I lied as the sadness filled me.

"It's like Squall said. No matter how far apart we are, we will always be together… As long as we think of each other. We may never see each other but we will always be here inside of you."

Tyler said to Sora pointing to his heart.

"You'll be…inside me?"

Sora replied like he does when he's told Kairi's heart is inside of him. I had to suppress a laugh.

'wow…I don't know about Tyler but I wouldn't be going "inside" any guy.'

I walked up to Sora, Riku and Kairi and gave them hugs, not sure how I could just leave them. I turned to see Midna and Tyler doing the same.

"Well, I guess it's time to go. See ya later."

I said as I grabbed Tyler and Midna and we went off back to our world. A warm breeze was the last thing I felt and I would miss being around them but would be happy to be back home soon.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen: Aaron?

We were sucked out of my T.V. But instead of landing on our feet we fell on Tyler's bed, bound and gagged by a glowing blue beam.

"Finally, so you made it out. I thought I was going to go insane waiting for you."

There was someone lying on my bed that was next to Tyler's but I couldn't see who it was because they were looking at some sheet music of mine and it had head phones so even if I could talk they wouldn't be able to hear me. I tried to talk, but all that I could get out was some muffled grunts. The figure spoke again, as if reciting lines, still not looking away from the sheet music.

"I have been sent here to get you and find out just who you are and how you got the gift. You will come with me either by force or you can come willingly. What will it be?"

He paused for a moment and said,

"Well, what will it be?"

Once again, he seemed not to realize I we couldn't talk. He seemed irritated and said as he moved to sit up and look at us

"Ok, I guess it will be the hard way. Shit now I'm going to have to carry you three… Wait Stuart, Tyler is that you? And who is this? Is that Mia? It is! Wow, Mia's Midna!"

It was Aaron. He just sat there looking at us, confused as he spoke.

"Stuart, you're the mystery kid who has the gift? Oh shit… Oops, sorry. Forgot you can't talk."

He then pushed a button on a metal object that pulled back all the blue bindings. We stood up and Tyler spoke first.

"What the hell was that for?"

Tyler yelled who was more irritated then confused, being on the bottom side of Midna and me when we were tied up.

"Sorry 'bout that. We had no idea who you were, so we didn't want to take any chances."

Aaron shrugged in his defense.

"So which one of you is the one who has the gift?"

Aaron asked as he looked at us. I raised my hand.

"What's going on Aaron? I'm so confused right now."

I said with a deer caught in headlights look on my face.

"So Stu's the one. Actually, you still have to come with me, so I hope you don't mind having me explain things on the way. I am late as it is. Kinda forgot to go inside the story to get you."

Aaron said as he stood up and walked to a wall.

"What are you doing?"

Midna asked as Aaron punched a hole in my wall then pulled out a door sized chunk.

"My wall! What the hell Aaron? My mom is going to be so pissed!"

I complained as I watch him walk into the hole.

"Sorry. I forgot to tell you what I was doing. Its ok, your wall is fine. Once we walk through it will fix itself. I just made a portal to where we need to go. Now follow me."

Aaron said, looking back at me. So we just followed him without any other questions. I watched Aaron as he walked in front of the three of us, leading the way. He was in black suit with electric blue lining. His shirt was un-tucked and his tie was loosened. To top it off he had a guitar case on his back that seemed to give of a strange aura.

"So you going to tell me what's going on?"

I said as we walked through a tunnel that seemed to get bigger as we went deeper.

"Oh yeah, well I'm a member of this organization that can do what you do Stu, and about three hours ago we noticed some weird levels of Manifest going up and in Kingdom Hearts II. It freaked us out, but tracked the source and we soon found out that there was someone we didn't know about in the story already fighting them. So they sent me to get who or whatever was using the gift. I don't remember what else they said about you."

Aaron said as I looked at him, still slightly confused.

"What do you mean you don't know what else they said about me?"

I asked concerned.

"What? I wasn't paying attention. Sorry, but I'm sure it wasn't anything important."

As Aaron finished, the tunnel opened up and we were in a wide valley with an enormous lake and a giant castle. I looked at the sparkling lake and saw what looked like tentacles coming out of it.

"Holy shit, it looks just like Hogwarts."

Tyler beamed in awe. Aaron smirked and said,

"That's because it is, it's our base. We used the death star up until a little while ago. It's actually a funny story as to how we got it, but I won't get into that now. Shall we get going?"

We walked to the castle in a short time.

"Hm, kind of reminds me of home, except for the absence of twilight and no one is bowing as I walk by…I like it."

Midna said as we walked into the enormous front doors that opened on their own. Though there were a few people walking up and down the hallways, they seemed to pay no attention to us.

"So everyone here can go into stories like I do?"

I asked looking into an open door. There was a pretty girl playing games which is weird because pretty girls don't play games. So I kinda pointed her out to Tyler.

"Yeah, but most don't."

Aaron answered. It wasn't long before we made it to the Great Hall, were a half a dozen people waited for us. Among them was a rather large black man who sat in the center chair that gave off a scary and intimidating look with his tattoos on his face. To his left was a wild-looking girl who seemed to be dancing in her seat and a pale looking boy who sat quietly watching us. To his left was a man with dark red hair and a sword who seemed to be resting his eyes and a snide looking blond boy that got up was walking to us. The blond boy had the same suit as Aaron except his was much neater and had a green trim.

"I'll take them from here slacker, now get lost."

The snide boy said to Aaron as he shot black smoke at us. It wrapped its self around us like a rope.

"What the hell Aaron?"

I yelled as I struggle to break free.

"Let them go! They came without a fight and I know them. They won't be any trouble, so let them go Ricky."

Aaron demanded as he stepped towards the boy.

"Can't do that, and if you're not going to leave then sit your ass down. I got orders to make sure this doesn't get out of hand."

We couldn't move and we barely could keep ourselves from falling down, but I didn't stop struggling. The smoke lifted us and put us in three different seats near the front where the rest of the people sat. Tyler and I were struggling to break free of our bindings but Midna just sat there looking around calmly, as if she was solving a puzzle. No one said anything until we settled down, then the big man with the tattoos on his face spoke.

"Hello my name is Kyle. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but we have to make sure that you don't try anything. Aaron may know you but that doesn't mean we can trust you. You must understand it's for your own safety as well as the safety of those around you. Now I'm sure you want to find out what is going on is that right?"

I nodded confused as to how calm the man sounded.

"So you know Aaron do you…? From the look on his face, when we were discussing what to do with you, he probably has been able to tell you anything besides who we are. First off, before I tell you what's going on, I have a few questions for you. Is that alright?"

I nodded again, even though I was starting to become irritated and didn't feel like answering any questions. Kyle continued.

"Ok, we know you have the gift, but we still have no idea who you three are or how you obtained the gift. We would feel much more comfortable if we knew, so could you enlighten us?"

The man didn't seem to want to hurt us. It was more like he studying me or interviewing me for a job.

"Um I'm Stuart Mullin and these two are my best friends Tyler McGraw and Midna the Princess of Twilight."

I explained with confidence as I looked from Tyler to Midna, still not able to move anything else besides my head. I than continued to tell them how a masked man came out of my T.V. and just gave me the power for no reason.

"The person you describe isn't part of our organization, so either you're lying or there is another person out there with our power. So do you want to confess something or are you sticking with that."

Kyle said.

"Well since I'm not lying, I think I am going to stick with it."

I said, a little irritated that they were calling me a liar already.

"Ok, next off your friends. Tyler and Midna was it? It would seem neither of them possess the gift. So that must mean you had taken them with you. Why did you bring them in with you?"

Kyle said, looking at Midna and Tyler.

"Tyler is my best friend and has been since we met. I would do anything for him. Um, the reason I brought Tyler with me is because I had to tell him eventually because he lives with me and he would have found out anyways because we are hardly ever apart. He begged to go along the next time I went into another story, so I just brought him along. Midna mainly lives in her world that's connected to ours through my shadow. Midna is a great person and I will protect her with my life, no matter who it is. We have a connection with each other that won't be broken. I couldn't just leave Midna after what we went through and I suppose that I found that it got lonely not having a friend that I didn't have to act like someone else with. It mainly happens to me when I stayed in a story for too long. Midna is very good company and we're very close and Tyler is my best friend. That is why I chose them. Not because they are the best fighters or the smarts people I know. It's because I love them."

I said, not sure why he wanted to know.

"In your shadow?"

Kyle asked raising an eyebrow.

"Um, yeah. I didn't want take her away from her home completely so she can go into my shadow to her world whenever she needs to."

I said.

"Are you saying you took her out of a story? You must understand that we can't have fictional characters living in the real world Stuart. Do you know how risky it was doing that? Not only could it expose yourself to the real world but what if she was a Manifest leader tricking you into taking it out? Just having her in the real world could reveal our organization's secret to the world, and we can't have that. I don't know what we are going to do."

Kyle said, now showing some emotion for the first time.

"Risky?"

I asked, not sure what he meant. But he wasn't listening.

"We may have to send her back, and bringing Tyler was irresponsible of you. What would have happened if he had died? You may not be part of us but you should know the whole reason we exist is to keep the really world and the people who live in it alive and bringing him in did just the opposite. I don't know what we will do with him, but we will deal with all that after we deal with you."

"What would you do with Tyler? He lives with me he will find out again, even if you erase him memory. And you're not sending Midna anywhere because I won't allow it. If you even try I will personally kick your ass."

I snarled through gritted teeth, but Ricky punched me in the stomach. He was pretty strong and knocked the wind out of me. I gasped for air.

"Shut your mouth!"

He threatened me, but I had an idea.

"Shut the fuck up you homo. Why don't you let me go so I can kick your ass?"

I taunted Ricky.

"What did you call me? Do you know who I am? I'm Ricky the best here and no one talks to me like that either. I'm going to fuck you and your friends up if you don't shut your trap."

Ricky threatened as he punched me once again but this time in the face, but I was hoping he would do this. It happened in a flash. I got up out of my seat kicking Ricky's legs out from under him, and drew out Ebony and Ivory pointing one at Kyle who stood up and the other to the head of Ricky who lay face down on the ground. Everyone got tense. The dark red headed man who I thought had been asleep this entire time now stood up drawing his sword but I aimed at him instead of Kyle making him stop.

"How did you break my shadow bonds?"

Ricky snarled not daring to move. I spat the blood out of my mouth onto the ground. He had split my lip but I didn't care. My suit would soon heal it and I was too pissed to care.

"It was easy. I stole a little of your power when you hit me. I really don't care who the fuck you are, if you ever threaten my friends or me again I will put this barrel to your temple just like this and paint the walls with your gray matter… Do you understand me …Bitch?"

I snapped sharply but Midna's voice made me stop.

"Stuart, calm down!"

She demanded. She was the only thing that could make me stop so fast.

"But…"

"No buts, now sit down! I'm terribly sorry about this, Stuart always has been a little protective of his friends and he doesn't always think about what he's doing."

Midna apologized calmly and respectfully to Kyle. Still shaking from the anger I reluctantly pulled my gun back from Ricky's head and put them away. After Ricky scuffled to his feet and walked back looked at me with a mixture of hatred and embarrassment I sat back down.

"So you do have some skills I see. Very impressive not many people could overtake Ricky. I can see how you survived with that many Larvas. Midna, might I ask why did you decide to join Stuart and how can you be so cavalier about being fictional?"

Kyle asked, now directing his attention at Midna. Midna did not expect to be asked such a question but she answered none the less.

"In all honesty, I haven't thought about it that much. I guess it's because he's my first true friend."

She had a smile that showed how much I actually meant to her. Kyle looked at her curiously and asked,

"What do you mean, first true friend?"

Midna looked at me and said,

"I am and have always been a princess as you may or may not know, but being such comes at a cost. I was always too busy with ruling to make friends and get to know people and those I did, treated me differently because I was royalty. No one really cared about me, they just wanted powerful friends. When Stuart came he was funny and kind to me, even though he knew who I was. I treated him like a servant but he stuck by me even though he didn't need to. He didn't care that I was royalty. He knew I needed help and he was and still is there for me when I need him, even though I was kind of a bitch to him, and now that he needs me I will be there for him."

Kyle seemed to be taking this in and paused for a little while. After a moment or two he looked at Midna with what appeared to be a smile then to me and continued.

"Now, what did you do in this Kingdom Hearts game and why didn't you leave when you saw that there was a Manifest leader?"

Kyle asked, regaining his calm demeanor.

"Larva… Manifest leader what are you talking about? Wait, do you mean Duma and Zephon?"

But at this Aaron sat up and said,

"Zephon was there?"

I looked back and saw Aaron standing. His head phones had been ripped off so he wouldn't miss a single part of what was being said now.

"Yeah, but what the big deal? They were tough, but we beat them…kinda."

I shrugged, still wondering what they were talking about when they said larva and Manifest leader. Aaron looked from Kyle to me and said,

"Are you saying you killed them? You killed two Manifest leaders all on your own without any training."

I was about to repeat that it wasn't that hard but I remembered how we nearly lost, so I tried to make it look like my friends were the reason we lived.

"Well, not really. I had Tyler and Midna with me, but yeah, we did kill one of them."

Kyle looked curious and asked,

"One of them?"

I could see why they were so surprised that I killed him because it took everything I had to do it.

"Yeah, I tore Duma out of Saix and then killed him, but Zephon got away."

Ricky started in on me though he seemed more cautious not to insult me,

"Stop lying, there is no way you could have beat a two leaders without any proper training."

He obviously didn't want to believe that I did what I said I did. But Midna looked up at Ricky and said,

"No, it's true look."

With a crack the mask with a single hole in the head appeared in front of Kyle who then went on to examine it.

"Hmmmm, well you weren't lying about killing one of them…. But it wasn't a leader, so you can calm down Ricky."

He said, seeing how irritated Ricky was.

"This came from a Manifest residing in a character from this story, did it not?"

He continued to ask me and I nodded still not sure what he was talking about.

"You are very lucky, you do know that don't you…? Anyways, as I said, this is not a leader but given a day or two more it would have become one and then you would have never won this fight, but nonetheless this is very impressive… It looks like we should give you a chance to keep you powers after all. Now, if you will please wait, my associates and I will discuss what shall happen to you and your friends."

With that Ricky and Aaron stood up to join Kyle and the other three people. I watched as they began discussing the fate of my friends and myself. I didn't move from my spot, not wanting to be noticed as I prepared for the worst. I would not let them take Midna away or my powers. I was wondering where the masked man was and half expected him to appear out of nowhere and clear everything up but he didn't. I still hadn't seen him since that first day and was wondering if I ever would. After about ten minutes of watching them discuss, they stopped and went back to their spots.

"Now, do you have anything to say before I tell you our decision?"

But I didn't so I sat quietly waiting for the verdict hand s close to my side so I could draw my guns if I needed to fight my way out.

"Um, actually I do."

Tyler said, which startled even me because since we arrived he hadn't said anything. Everyone looked at him with curiosity.

"I don't want to make things worse for Stuart. I know he doesn't want to see me get hurt, but he did prepare me very well."

Tyler said.

"That may be but bringing you in is still his choice and he would be responsible for you. Let me ask you something. If you died what would Stuart do and how would he feel? From what I see he would blame himself and then who knows what would happen. Do you really want to risk putting that guilt on Stuart?"

Kyle asked Tyler who looked down and said.

"…No, but I wouldn't leave him either."

I said pleading. Kyle looked down at me.

"Very well then, now then for our judgments… Though you lack in subtlety and respect you have proven yourself to be well qualified to become part of our organization. You will be given the test. Follow Alex and he will explain the details."

I was confused by this. They wanted me to join their Organization. But it didn't seem like I had much of a choice

"What about Midna and Tyler?"

I asked looking at them. Tyler sat looking at Kyle.

"What happens to them is going to be up to you. So it sucks for them."

Ricky snarled still not able to look at me in the eye. Midna and Tyler suddenly disappeared from their cages, but before I could react Kyle said calmly,

"It is ok, they will be fine. They have been taken to their own private rooms until we need them. They are basically in their own suites and will be treated like royalty."

Then a pale-looking boy who sat quietly watching the whole time came to me and began to walk out of the door. I followed him and Aaron walked besides me, which made me calm knowing that he was on my side. I was wondering what was going to happen.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen: The Tri-wizard Cup?

"So, what's going on?"

I asked Aaron as we walked slowly back the way we came in from. My temper had gone down quite a bit.

"Well, they didn't just wipe your mind with a Neuralyzers so that's good. I convinced them to let you join. Right now they are taking you to the hedge maze from the Goblet of Fire, the one from the Tri-Wizard Cup… Well anyways, they are going to put you through a test as he said. It will test you on strength, speed, reflexes and wit."

I looked down at my feet. I was exhausted still and didn't know what to do. I was still thinking about That Ricky kid. I really wanted to hurt him for threatening my friends.

"Dude I wanted to say this a little while ago but what you did to Ricky was awesome."

I looked up at Aaron who was smiling.

"Yeah what was up with that guy any ways?"

"He was placed second in command a little while ago and ever since then he's been an even bigger douchè. It's about time someone put that pompous ass hole in his place."

Aaron chuckled.

"Say, what did he mean when he said what happens to my friends is up to me?"

I asked after thinking about what he said

"Well it wasn't easy to do, especially with Ricky's stupid ass there. He's always a pain in the ass thinking he so much better than anyone, but I convinced Kyle to let you keep your friends. He didn't tell me what he was going to do with them but Cassidy seem really excited. She was the crazy lookin' chick. She is in charge of making the tests and she loves making new obstacles for the test.

Speaking of the test again, there are some things you must know and that is don't waste your time with too much fighting, got me?"

I grew conserved that I would have to fight something I want ready for and hoping the others were faring better than I was.

"Only fight if you need to and don't cheat. I can't tell what but don't trust your eyes... they might be fooled. Another thing is don't underestimate any of the creatures in the maze. Trust me, when I went through it an evil Barney nearly killed me."

By the time Aaron had finished we had reached the outer walls of the maze. And for the first time Alex spoke. I hadn't really noticed the kid too much. He was nothing like the others. His pale skin and red hair made him look like he didn't go out much though he wore and over sized coat and a long scarf which would say different.

"Um ok, we're here, anything you want before you are told what you have to do?"

It was a quiet voice that had no strength behind it. He didn't look directly at me.

"Actually, I would really like my friends back!"

I snarled a little annoyed. Alex shrunk in as if he was going to be hit. No matter how annoyed I was with Ricky and Kyle I had no real reason to be angry at this kid so I felt bad.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that."

I apologized.

"Um, what?"

He said confused. I could tell this guy was terrified of me. He looked as if he was the person everyone else made fun of, kind of like the kid that no one likes at school. I knew the look because that's what I used to look like.

"I'm sorry for scaring you like that. I'm just kind of stressed, but could I get my friends back?"

Alex looked shocked that I was being nice to him.

"Um, sure, but they will have to go back when I'm done… Ok?"

He mumbled.

"That's fine."

Alex pulled out a remote looking thing and pushed a big green button that made Tyler and Midna appear in front of me. Midna hugged me as she saw me and asked what was going on, so I explained what the situation best I could. Tyler on the other hand was feeling fine because he was at Hogwarts.

"Hey what happened to the room? I was in the middle of eating!"

Tyler said as a noodle poked out of his mouth. He was holding a fork and was obviously enjoying the hospitality. I shook my head and looked back at Alex, who seemed as though he had something to say, but was to shy too say it.

"Um, can I tell you what you have to do now or do you still need more time?"

He asked and I gave him a nodded to proceed. He took out a sheet of paper and began to read it

"Um, ok, let's see… Well, you have to go through this maze to the center like in the movie, but there will be monsters and traps. You will have only an hour and a half to do it. Be very careful, you can be killed. If you get into trouble we will pull you out… if we can.

Now, about your friends. It is the organization's duty to insure the protection of all people. Tyler has agreed to take our test, but there may end up being a problem. There aren't many people who are capable of acquiring our gift, and out of all those people less than half actually are able to obtain it.

You are the only case of an outsider obtaining the gift we have ever seen. You may be able to bring Tyler with you, but since he is unable to leave on his own it would be very reckless and unwise to ask him to rely on others to make sure he gets out alive. The trial just to get our power is nearly impossible.

We have spoken to him about what shall happen to him if he is unable to join you on his own and we have decided he doesn't want to put the burden on you as well. He shall take the trial, but if he is unsuccessful he agreed to have his memories wiped and his powers will be nullified. We are not going to take them away so he will always have them, just in case we need him, but they will only be able to be used in a life threatening situation.

The good news is Midna, not being a human, can stay with you as long as she is under your care and supervision. Kyle says he could hear a great passion in your words that convinced him to let her stay. He did not want to separate you from such a close friend. The catch is she will be hidden in the maze and it's up to you to find her. It must be your loyalty that will let you keep Midna. If you find her and make it to the finish in time, she will be allowed to stay. But if you can't find her she will be sent back to her home forever… Sorry.

If you run out of time you fail. You can use any powers long as they are not teleporting or the ability to walk through walls. Don't go over, under or through the walls, because you will be disqualified. Well, that's just about it so tell me when you are ready to start."

I turned to Tyler and Midna who both had become very serious and seemed focused.

"But Tyler, what will happen to you if you don't make it through? I don't know how I will be able to hide my power from you since we are best friends and live with each other."

I said, not wanting to have to keep secrets from him again.

"Um yes, well, about that. Kyle has arranged for Tyler to get his own home. He will be able to own his own home and live how he wants. Kyle says he will make it so Tyler has no trouble living on his own so you won't have to worry about him."

Alex said shrugging his shoulders.

"Thanks a lot. Stuart, come on you're talking like I failed in the trial already. I'll be fine, you know I will."

Tyler said as he started to smile.

"Even if I do fail, it's not like I'm leaving you as a friend. Think of it this way. You won't have to worry about me getting hurt now. Just make sure you win and save Midna. Leave the trial to me."

He said as he patted my back. I looked at Tyler and forced a smile. I felt a little better that Tyler was able to choose for himself. I couldn't let him down. But I was never good with mazes.

"You got it. But I have no idea of how I will get through this maze. Do you guys have any?"

I asked, worried about the time limit and trying not to think of how Tyler might not be able to stay as my sidekick slash partner. Midna, who usually came up with the good ideas, simply shrugged.

"Actually, I think I do."

Tyler said as he reached on to the backside of his belt, pulling a little black box from it and handing it to me.

"You can use this to find Midna and the way out."

Though I tease Tyler for being a goof like me, he has a really good idea every now and then. He handed the small box to me and I suddenly saw what it was. It was Captain Jack Sparrow's magic compass.

"Oh my god. Midna look, Tyler had a good idea for once!"

I beamed, suddenly regaining my confidence.

"For once? What's that suppose to me?"

Tyler said angrily.

"You know exactly what it means."

I told him.

"Never mind. Anyways, that's not important. You need to get this over with and find Midna."

He was right. I had what I needed to find my way. The rest was up to my skills, so I decided to tell Alex I was ready.

"Thanks man."

I grinned, holding the compass in my hand.

"Alex, can I stay and see if Stuart makes it before I leave for my test?"

Tyler asked.

"Um, I guess so, but after that you will have to go talk to Kyle and begin your trial, ok?"

He said to Tyler who nodded.

"Um, ok, soon as you walk through the entrance your time starts. But first we have to send Midna to the spot in the maze. But be warned, she is hidden on a very dangerous path. It will take you along the path of one of our worse monsters."

Alex said wincing as if I was going to hit him when he gave me this news.

"Stuart, may the force be with you."

Tyler said with a grin and with that Alex pushed another button making Tyler and Midna disappear.

"Stuart, remember what I told you. Sorry, but I have to go, I know you will do fine, so see you in less than an hour and a half."

Aaron said as he disappeared into a blue puff of smoke. I started for the opening but stopped to hear Alex say,

"Um, Stuart…? Good luck."

I felt bad for him because he obviously had no friends and he seemed to appreciate me being kind, but I had no time to spare a reply. I had passed the entrance way and my time had started. I pulled out the compass and focused on wanting to find the quickest route to Midna. It pointed left and so I followed it, running fast as I could without tiring myself out, turning with every change of the compass.

I was running to fast to be affected my any of the traps like pit falls which I leaped over. A few minutes in and my spider sense went off. I barely missed the spikes that were shooting out of the ground by jumping forward, nearly losing the compass. Lasers, tentacles and turrets all tried to stop me. I chuckled because I was reminded of Data from The Goonies movies line.

"Booby traps…hehe Booby... Accents are funny."

I said to myself tying to lighten my mood before I stood up and saw the spike floor didn't stop coming out and they were catching up with me. They almost seemed to be following the path that led to my friend. I jumped as the last of them shot out, catching my trench coats tail and tearing it.

I sat panting as my venom suit patched the whole back up. I had to watch out for more traps as I went along. I found myself being lead into a small black tunnel that was blocked by what I recognized to be a sphinx. I had fought these in devil may cry and knew how dangerous they could be. They didn't have to touch you to kill you. All they did was ask questions and you had to answer them correctly. If you didn't you die. The worst part was you couldn't kill them. They were one of the few things that would just not die.

"Damn it. Ok, ok what's the riddle I'm in a little bit of a rush."

I said impassionedly. It looked at me for a moment and began to speak.

"I talk, but I do not speak my mind. I hear words, but I do not listen to thoughts. When I wake, all see me. When I sleep, all hear me. Many heads are on my shoulders. Many hands are at my feet. The strongest steel cannot break my visage, but the softest whisper can destroy me. What am I?"

My first instinct was to say you're a sphinx but I knew that wasn't a good idea. I took a little time to think about it and came up with one thing. It was Aaron who actually made me think about it. He was always into theater and once said how he hated having to say what his character was thinking.

"You're an actor?"

I said not knowing if my answer was right, but since I didn't die I guessed I was. The only problem was that the sphinx didn't move.

"A box without hinges key nor lid yet golden treasure inside is hid. Now what am I?"

The sphinx asked but I knew this riddle.

"You're an egg; now get the fuck out of my way."

Either it was me threatening or that just happened to be the last question but the sphinx moved aside. I ran inside of the cave which had the inside size of a stadium. Inside was something that blocked the exit.

"Damn, all these fucking delays."

I complained to myself as I looked at the thing towering over me. I could tell it wasn't friendly because it had the Dark aura, much like the one Duma had, though it was much less intense. Having that same feeling reminded me of what Duma did and how I still needed to get Zephon. I felt the anger flow through me, as I thought about how I had let Zephon escape.

I would take all my anger out on this thing. I might have felt bad for it if I wasn't so pissed because of it. I went into devil trigger mode and walked towards it. It shot tentacles at me from its arm and I cut them away with my claws. It was just like the others. Its size would not help it at all with my speed. It came for me and I let it grab me. I grinned as it drew me up to look at me as it attempted to crush me. I could feel my bones wanting to crack but I didn't mind the pain because I had been through much worse in Devil May Cry.

"Reflega."

I muttered as it prepared to kill me. A ball of light surrounded me and tore apart the hand that gripped me. I fell to the ground along with bits of it hand. It howled in pain as it shot its left hand for me like a knife. I stood there and drew Alastor at the last second, putting it in front of me and making the arm split in two down the center. I was splattered by its thick black blood.

It had become defenseless and it knew it. I wiped the blood off Alastor and put him away. I smiled at it as it stepped back. I then began to cut it until it was in pieces. It made me feel a little better, getting rid of that disgusting monster. I set off for Midna again and I soon heard her calling out to me. She was close. So far, I had not seen any more of the monsters that Aaron and Alex had warned me about.

Then I found her. She was stuck in a force field guarded by what looked like two robotic soldiers from some random anime. They had Achilles printed on their head. They wasted no time attacking me firing there machine guns at me. They had Gatling-Guns on their arms but I managed to avoided most of their attacks. I had to hide behind bushes to let my suit heal me. I ran out of the bushes right at them but when I made a hit with Alastor it barely dented them. Shooting at them just made the bullets bounce back at me. I looked at Midna who was trying to tell me something, but the barrier silenced her. I knew I was wasting too much time then I looked back at Midna who pointed to her ankle.

After seeing this, the name Achilles made so much more sense. I went for the legs of the robotic behemoths. I cut the little bit of exposed circuitry and their legs started to malfunction, not able to keep them up or even let them defend themselves. I touched them with Alastor then unleashed a blast of electricity, frying them. Soon as they stopped moving the shield went down.

"Took ya long enough."

She groaned with her normal smirk.

"Let's go babe."

I said to her as I put her on my back to save time. I was following the compass, now seeing monsters more frequently. Some terrible and gruesome, some almost funny, like the zombie Elmo or the evil Kirby who nearly swallowed my hole. I would have kept running non-stop if it weren't for all the traps. They had classic ones like boulders that nearly fell on us. Then some rather creative ones like invisible webs that would shock you if you ran into them. We found this out because we saw a wear wolf run at us into one of them.

We had been running for at least a half an hour when we hit a problem. The compass pointed through a hedge no matter how many times we ran past. Luckily the answer was given to us in a trap. A jet of flame shot out the opposite way the compass was pointing, making us fall into the bush. But there was nothing there. It was an illusion that led to a rounded area that Tyler had been waiting in. I put Midna down and walked up to Tyler, confused.

"Good job Stuart, you finished."

Tyler said as he walked to me smiling. But something was wrong. Tyler got close to me with his hand out stretched for a hand shake, so I punched him in the face as hard as I could. It sent him into the nearest wall.

"What the hell! That really hurt!"

Tyler moaned as he got back up.

"Shut up you imposter! You're not Tyler and I know it."

I demanded cracking my knuckles.

"What? How could you tell?"

The imposter said as he stood up and gave me a cold look.

"I know Tyler to well. He's my best friend and we never shake hands. We hug like real men and even if you were the real Tyler you wouldn't wine about getting hit. You would just hit me lots more back and harder."

I said shrugging. It was Ricky in disguise.

"I'm glad to be me again. I felt all dirty in that disguise. Can't believe you made it this far. This is the last challenge. You got to go through me in a one on one fight, no weapons or magic, and we fight until one is unable to fight or they give up. I get to show you why I am the best there is."

"That's fine with me. It will give me a chance to pay you back for being such a douche bag."

I said putting my weapons down.

"Come on."

No sooner had he gotten the words out than I had ran straight up to him punching him square in the jaw. But he wasn't out. He came at me swinging doing some kind of martial arts styles that I could barley avoid. I would punch him only to have him twist in a way that my punch would not hurt him at all. He was fast, nearly as fast as me. I had to back up to the hedge then I got an idea. I jumped into the air and he fallowed me without hesitation. He hit me down and landed on the wall of plant and smirked.

"What giving up already? I told you I was the best. Say good bye to that freak of a friend you got there."

He smirked smugly. I could shoot his ass up with some lightning but then Midna would yell at me and he would be right. Instead I laughed as I looked up.

"Why don't you come down and start to actually fight me. None of this kiddy stuff. I'm tired of going easy on you."

He got pissed off and went to jump at me, but something had his feet, making him fall to the ground along with part of the bush. I didn't waste my chance I ran up to him before he could get up and webbed him down. Soon as I finished the barrier went away.

"Ick! What is this crap? Get it off!"

I heard him calling as he lay there. I walked up to him as he lay there struggling leaned over so just he could hear me and said

"I told you not to mess with my friends…bitch!"

Midna and I then walked to the end. We had passed the finishing line to a surprised looking Kyle, Tyler and Aaron. I saw a clock that had nine minutes and thirteen seconds on it.

"We finished."

Midna cheered as she smiled widely.

"We did it!"

Tyler gloated proudly. I stepped in and said.

"Dude, without this compass I would have been lost in that maze for days."

But the victory was bittersweet because Tyler was still going to have to leave for his own training.

"Congratulations! You are now a part of the organization and a deal is a deal. Midna may stay with you, but she won't be considered part of the organization. We will have your indictment in a day or so. I suggest you go home and get some rest, you have earned it. We will come and get you around five o'clock tomorrow."

Kyle said as he nodded in approval and somewhat apologetically, he seemed some hat relieved that this had happen.

"That means Midna can stay, right? You won't send her back to her world?"

"Yes, even though it has never been done before, I will allow her to stay. She seems to keep you under control and I am interested in what will happen. Go talk to Aaron for any other questions you might have."

"You better keep your promise."

I threatened waving a figure at him.

"Don't worry, long as you give me no reason to have her sent away I will allow it. Now Tyler, are you ready for the trials or do you need rest as well?"

Kyle asked Tyler who shook his head.

"Very well then, come with me."

Kyle said to Tyler before they left with barely a nod. Then came Ricky dragged by Aaron because he couldn't get out of my web.

"No fair! The rules said no weapons and no magic."

Ricky complained as he struggled to break free only getting himself more and more tangled in my web.

"Well it's a good thing I didn't use magic then isn't it? What I did was use my web that comes from my body on your feet in the air when you were distracted with trying to beat me down. It's called using your head so… You're dumb."

I said sarcastically.

"Good job. Told you it would be a piece of cake. Now get yourself home like Kyle said, you really could use a break. Follow me back to the door to your home… After I take Ricky here to the castle. Unless you can tell me how I can get rid of this stuff?"

Aaron said as he pulled Ricky along the floor with a sled like thing. I shook my head and said,

"Sorry it is basically indestructible unless you don't mind tearing his flesh off with it and it will just get you stuck if you try to help. It will disintegrate in about an hour. That should give him some time to calm down and think about his bad attitude, don't you think Aaron?"

I could see how angry Ricky was getting. He had gotten his mouth covered by the web and couldn't talk, though no one was complaining. Midna then put her hand on my shoulder and said,

"You gonna be ok without me for a little while? I need to get back home. I've been gone for way to long. My people must be wondering what's taking me so long. I told them I would be back, but I don't want to be gone too much longer."

I shook my head and hugged her before she entered into my shadow. I didn't wanna see her go but she had to. I promised myself never to keep here from home.

"So what is going to happen now?"

I asked, slightly depressed as we walked back to Hogwarts.

"Well, now you're part of us so you will be assigned a job and from what I've seen, you will probably become a hunter like me."

Aaron said as we set Ricky down in front of a man who took him.

"You guys keep using that word Manifest… What does it mean?"

I asked.

"Oh, that will be explained to you tomorrow, but in short the Manifests are the reason for the organization. Remember that Zephon you were talking about?"

I nodded my head and said,

"He's a Manifest?"

Aaron nodded and went on.

"The Manifest are beings who have been created from man's imagination… In a sense."

Aaron said as we reached the magic door.

"Um yeah… We'll see you later."

I said to Aaron as he opened the door for me.

"Later Aaron."

I said. The door closed behind me and sealed up.

"Wow, today has been way too fucking confusing."

I sighed to myself as I lay down in bed.

"See you in the morning."

I called to Midna through my shadow as I went to sleep feeling alone without Midna or Tyler at my house and wondering about what would happen to Tyler.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen: First Mission

All was quiet and the sun had not even begun to rise. The air felt thick and icy as it filled my lungs. I could hear someone breathing heavily next to my bed. I waited a second before I sat up to see Tyler lying on my ground. I lied back down and closed my eyes still too tired to think. I began to wonder,

'Why is Tyler was on the ground?'

I was still too tired to think straight when I felt five cold and clammy fingers wrap themselves around my neck. This sensation startled me into full awareness. I opened my eyes to see a boy with straight black hair and pale grey completion. He was pulling me out of my bed by my neck and I was helpless. I raked at his fingers but it did nothing except put a smile on his face. It seemed as though I had lost my powers and was actually becoming weaker by the second. I was being picked up when I saw him fully, he was no normal boy. I could tell this by his wings and eyes which had a white glow to them. And a black smoke exuded its self from him

I struggled to free myself but it was hopeless. I could feel myself losing consciousness. I looked at Tyler in search for help but when I saw him I wished I hadn't. He was lying next to Midna on the ground… dead. I tried to call to them knowing it would be useless to do any ways but I was still being held up by the boy. Their throats had been crushed as I was sure mine was going to be soon. I looked back at the boys face and watched as it grew a twisted smile. My eyes widened as I felt his hand tighten around my throat. It was over for me as he tightened his grip. I was on the verge of death and everything was going black. I watched as his lips moved as the last bit of life slipped out of me.

"See you soon. Hehehe."

I woke up covered in sweat and breathing heavily. I brought my hands to my throat and felt nothing. I looked around my room in a panic and saw that it was how I left it when I had fallen asleep.

"It was a dream?"

I gasped as I massaged my neck. It was so real though… I could still feel his hand on my throat… At least I think I could.

'See you soon'

I thought to myself as I got up and got breakfast. I just chalked the dream up to all the things that have been happening to me and stress, though it still made me feel uneasy. I was put under lots of stress the past day and I was lucky to be alive.

I decided to not even tell Midna about the dream that day. It wasn't long before Midna came back to check up on me, though she could not stay for very long. She told me how her family back home had been wondering where she had gone to for so long. She would have to stay home for a while because her father the king of twilight had really freaked out and she needed to calm him down. She left for her world and I went on with my day.

I went to school like I used to. Neither Tyler nor Aaron showed up that day which made the day that much longer. It must have been the longest school day ever. Eventually school let out instead of my mom there to pick me up, it was Aaron. He stood at the other end of the cross walk listening to his iPod.

"He Stu you ready? It's training time."

Aaron yelled over his iPod. It was a little awkward. He was not very good at remembering to keep his voice down when he had his ear buds in.

"Training… What do you mean training?"

I asked as I remembered the first time we tried to train at the X mansion. Aaron took out one of his head phones so he could hear me.

"It's more like studying at school. So prepare to be bored out of your mind."

Aaron said, showing his lack of enthusiasm for school. It's not that he's stupid he thinks it's all just pointless. He likes to learn by doing instead of being told.

"So how's Tyler?"

I asked, wanting to hear good news.

"I have no idea. The trials usually take at least two days to finish. Speaking of training we are also not sure of your skills so we need to see what you are capable of. If what you say is true, then we have only seen a little of what you can do."

Aaron shrugged as we teleported to the castle with the little remote Aaron had.

"What are we going to be taught and how long is it gonna take?"

I asked as we walk to a classroom. The halls of Hogwarts were slightly less exciting than I had expected.

"Just about the details of the jobs and a little bit more info on what we are after. It shouldn't take long. Midna should be here for this part, especially if she will be going with you, so could you call her here?"

"Sure, but she might be busy though."

I said to Aaron, but it ended up she wasn't. We arrived in a small empty room. Random objects lay about like every other room in the castle.

"So where is the teacher?"

I asked as we sat down.

"You're lookin' at him. You don't mind if I put some music on do you?"

Aaron said as he walked to the front of the room and pushed a button on his little silver remote. The walls started to play some classical music. Aaron was smart but he hated school and was constantly loosing iPod's to teachers. I think it's because it was too easy for him actually but in any case he didn't seem like the teaching person.

"Ha ha very funny… No really, where are they?"

Midna laughed as I turned to the door way expecting someone to walk in.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean? I want to get this over with as fast as you do, so could I please get this over with?"

Aaron sighed as he looked at Midna and me.

"Yes Mr. Schwartz, but why are you here to teach us?"

I asked mockingly to Aaron as I would a normal teacher.

"The Organization has put me in charge of you two. They said since I defended you so much they will make it so you are my responsibility."

"So what are you going to teach us today Mr. Schwartz?"

I asked once again in my teasing voice.

"First off stop the Mr. Schwartz thing… It's just creepy. Ok, I will tell you about the Organization. The Organization is as old as the Manifest, but their origins are unknown even by the members. No one really knows where the power originated, but the rumor is that it was a Manifest that gave people the power in the first place. We have been doing the same thing for as long as we can remember. All the horror stories like vampires and stuff. Well they all originated from manifest. Either they were a manifest that came out of some ones story like vampires or they were the inspiration for a monster."

Aaron paused for questions that were not asked so he went on.

"There are five main jobs. Our main job is the hunter whose job is to stop any Escaped Manifest, kinda of like a secret agent who takes out monsters in the real world. The other big job is Surfer. That's what I do. We go into the stories and must keep the existing leaders from escaping into are world. We do this by either killing them or temporarily sending them to other stories before they can corrupt it. The other three jobs you don't really need to know about. They are trainers, trackers and our leader. They are non-combat members of the organization so you don't have to worry about them. Trainers are the people in charge of finding and training the new members. Trackers are basically the guys who find where the Manifest leaders are hiding. And Kyle that big guy is our leader. He gives the orders on who goes where."

Aaron paused again.

"So what will we be doing?"

I asked, wanting to know if I will get a chance to get back at Zephon who was apparently Manifest leader.

"Well since you went above and beyond their expectations I would say you two will be leader hunters like me and skip being just normal Manifest hunters."

I still had no idea what I would have to do or even get out of this job.

"How did you become one by the way?"

Midna asked Aaron

"My dad was one when he was younger and since he's too old they wiped his mind and got me instead."

I was wondering if they would eventually try that on me when I thought of another question. I still had no idea what we had to do for our new job.

"So how does this whole job thing work?"

I asked.

"It's pretty simple actually. We are basically hit men. They call us, tell us where we are going, then send us after are target. The only thing is the targets like to hide in characters from the story and don't usually show themselves unless they are close enough to escaping. That's why we have to stay in the story as long as we do. The only edge we have is they usually pick villains to possess. Heroes don't seem to work for them as well. There has only been a few times where they have taken over a hero's body."

Aaron explained.

"So what do we get paid?"

I asked.

"Pay? Well they give us meals and a place to live. Most people who work here are orphans and that's all they need. You and I are some of the only people who have lives outside of the job. So you don't get much other than what you take from the stories. Don't tell anyone I told you to take stuff by the way. We are only supposed to take what we will be using. No trophies or mementos. They're really anal about that stuff especially Ricky"

Aaron whispered a little disappointed. I thought about the few mementoes I had taken out with me like the Heart Piece from Zelda or my demon skin rug.

"I guessed as much. So next you're going to tell us about the Manifest, right?"

Aaron nodded his head. He was obviously getting bored with all this teaching.

"Sure, why not? Like I said before, the Manifest are, in a sense, created by man's imagination. They develop in random stories and they are obsessed with becoming real so they can destroy and take over the real world. There are three distinct stages of a Manifest."

Aaron said as he raised three fingers.

"First off is the larval stage, the most common of the three. Ninety-nine present of Manifest don't make it past this stage because of the Organization or they just fade away. They don't pass this stage unless they are really lucky. There are many versions of this stage because they differ from story to story the range from monsters to simple villains. You can think of them as lackeys or minions. They are pretty easy to spot because they are usually all black and if they aren't then they give off a black smoke. They can be created by the higher up Manifest, and that's why there are so many of them. They do not think for themselves nor do they try to escape from the stories. They are not much of a threat without a leader. It takes a human lifetime for on single Manifest larva to go to the next stage.

The next stage is more of a transition stage that takes long enough to be considered a stage. It is where the Manifest starts to develop thoughts and a new body that look more…human I guess you would call it. They are nearly as powerful and smart as the end product, but they still are not as advanced. One example of them is this Duma guy who you fought and killed.

The Manifest leaders are few in number, but one is too many. Once they are to this stage the only thing you can do to stop them is keep them from corrupting a story and kill them, or at least scare them off to another world. The only reason they are really fucking hard to kill is they can escape to another story. Though they never can tell where they are going next. They usually stay inside a villain. To kill these guys you have to kill the thing they are staying in. once you o that they usually revert to a more monstrous form.

There have only been a few to escape to the real world and when that happened many people were killed and it had to be covered up. When they appear the come out as what they were when they left. That's how most mythical monsters where created. We actually made the people who saw those events, think it was a movie like A New Nightmare with Freddy Kruger or the Last Action Hero. This is the golden rule. Make sure you take this part to heart. The Manifests are nothing but pure evil and must be destroyed. No matter what they may say or do they are evil. They lie to you if you have them at your mercy and soon as you turn your back you're done for. You got all this so far?"

Aaron stopped to make sure that we weren't falling behind.

"Yeah, but could you tell us about Zephon?"

Midna asked wondering if he knew anything. From Aaron's expression during our trial it looked like he might. He had gotten away from us and we needed to finish what we started.

"There are at least two known Manifest leaders still out there, each with their own personality. The first calls herself Liana the Fiery Nymph. She is a crazy psycho bitch that loves to kill. We have seen her many times, but she has killed all of the previous leader hunters. It's best just to leave when you see her because she could give a crap about leaving the story. The other one we have both already seen... that's Zephon. He is the most common recurring leader. He's like a cockroach that just won't die. He is so common because he almost always has a minion and that makes him very easy to find."

I stopped Aaron and asked**.**

"Wait, you fought him before?"

Aaron looked at me and raised his left arm and pulled of the glove to reveal it was blackened up to his elbow. It looked almost like it had the life sucked out of it.

"See this? This is what happens when you are over taken by one of them… Yeah, I fought Zephon before. It was my first mission and I was cocky so I underestimated him. He tried to take over my body but luckily Ricky saved me. He still gloats about saving me. I have a score to settle with Zephon."

Aaron said with a look I had never seen before. It was cold and hateful. Midna and I looked at each other thinking about what Tyler asked us before he left.

"You think we will find Zephon ever again?"

I asked Aaron who nodded and rolled his eyes

"But it won't help kill the bitch. He just won't die."

He clearly had the same feeling for Zephon that we did.

"If that's all then I think it's time to move on. I'm getting tired of teaching anyways. Next will be a Q and A on your part about what powers you have."

Aaron said as he stepped out of the room. We entered a room where Alex sat tinkering with something. He looked up at us and flipped a switch to a computer. It turned on and started to record everything we said. He asked Midna and me what powers we had and to be very specific, so we did our best to describe them.

It was like a test that we didn't study for because we didn't want to look like we were lying. It was over rather quickly though and what we said seemed to please him. But near the end of Midna's interview the intercom beeped. Alex pushed another button, which sent a robot to go hit the button on the wall and give him the phone part.

"Yes boss… Uh huh… There right her**e**... Um, ok. Oh, looks like we can't finish this interview now."

Aaron looked confused and asked.

"Why? What did Kyle say?"

Aaron asked not sure what was happening

"You three have a mission."

Alex told looking down.

"Where is it this time and why is Stuart being sent this soon?"

Aaron asked, almost concerned.

"It's not just Stuart. It's for all three of you. I don't know where it is yet so let's going to the prep room to find out, ok?"

Alex said as we walked to another room not too far down the hall. Except this one had so much stuff that it amazed me it didn't take up half the castle. Our attention was directed to a large dangling robot with screen all around it. It flashed on and showed a list of information.

"Hello Alex, Aaron and… Subject names not found… How are you today?"

I was surprised to hear a ladies voice say.

"Hey, GLaDOS."

Aaron and Alex said simultaneously. I leaned in close to Aaron and asked very confused.

"… Who's GLaDOS? (And why is it spelled like that?)"

Aaron looked at me and said almost like he was keeping a secret,

"She's a robot lady who takes care of mission briefings. Her name stands for Genetic Life-form and Disk Operating System. We got her out of a game called Portal. She kinda kooky but is really good at her job."

I had heard about that game and became worried from what I knew.

"Doesn't she like try to kill you in that game?"

Aaron looked at the screen and snickered, only saying,

"Hehe... Yeah."

I found Aaron's answer a little unnerving, but since no one seemed to worry I decided it would just be best to let it go.

"So what do you got for us today?"

Aaron asked the computer screen. The robotic voice answered him sarcastically, though it was kind of odd to have a monotone voice be sarcastic.

"I am glad you asked Aaron, I had completely forgotten to tell you. A slight surge of Manifest activity has been detected in the animated show Naruto…"

The voice said as it read what was on the screen, basically making the screen pointless.

"Naruto, What's that about?"

"I was just getting to that… Subject name not found… Basic information needed on subject… Naruto series… Main plot… The story follows Naruto Uzumaki and his friends' personal growth and development as ninja. Naruto finds two friends and comrades in Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, two fellow young ninja who are assigned with him to form a three-person team under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also confides in other characters that he meets throughout the series as well, meaning in short that he makes many friends… They learn new abilities, get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of Konohagakure… I love ninjas don't you? There could be about three in here right now and you wouldn't know."

I wasn't sure what to think of these mission briefings. I couldn't tell when GLaDOS was being sarcastic or serious.

"Main characters… Allies… Naruto Uzumaki is the primary protagonist of the Naruto series, meaning he is a good boy like you all should be. Due to being the host for the nine-tailed demon fox, a malevolent creature that attacked Konohagakure, he is ostracized by the other villagers. He compensates for this with his cheerful and boisterous personality that is sometimes mistaken for foolishness… Much like how Aaron's laziness is mistaken for stupidity. Most characters in the Leaf Village are on the side of good though there will be one or two bad ones.

Character possessed by Manifest… Orochimaru is one of the primary antagonists of the Naruto series, meaning he is a bad man. He appears pasty and sickly, in the series. Orochimaru is a former ninja of Konohagakure turned evil. Use extreme caution when encountering him. He is extremely powerful even without a Manifest possessing him…

Mission directive… Subject name not found and Aaron along with subject name not found if she so chooses too will enter during the Chunin Exam saga, you shall pose as a foreign Ninja squad of three that wishes to enter the Chunin Exam. Stay in the exam long enough for the Manifest leader to reveal them self then terminate… Then there will be cake and a party just for you."

"Wow… That's helpful… But it kinda takes the fun out of it, don't you think Aaron?"

Midna said wondering if all the mission briefings were all that way.

"I am just excited for the cake."

I said as I imagined a big ice-cream cake. I began to drool.

"The cake is a lie Stuart… So what ya got for us Alex?"

Aaron told me in a whisper then looked to Alex. He took out a box and began to pull stuff out. I didn't pay attention because the computer lady lied to me and I was upset.

"Well you will need proof of being Ninja. So we made these for you."

He said as he handed us pieces of cloth with a metal bare on it alongside a photo ID of us.

"Oo, what's this for? Is it like a clocking device or something? Or maybe it will be like a tracking devise."

I said not knowing what to do with it the metal band shined in the light.

"Um, Stuart… It's like a badge see."

Aaron said he tied it like a belt and Midna wore it in her hair as a hair tie.

"Oh… Ok then, I don't need it. I can make my own."

I said as I made my belt buckle into the same lightning bolt shape as the badge. Next he gave Aaron a map and official documents to get us in this Exam. He also gave Aaron some more info on the story for him to read later.

"That should be all you need."

Alex said as he prepared the screen for us to enter.

"Aren't you forgetting something? Where is she, you know it's kinda hard to fight without a weapon?"

Aaron said to Alex.

"Oh Um, sorry I forgot. She is all tuned and ready for action."

He said as he handed Aaron a guitar case that he strapped on to his back. I was confused as to what weapon Aaron had that he kept in a guitar case but I ignored it, because of the random Japanese intro that was now playing.

"I shall give you some advice before you go… Dieing will stop you from completing your mission… Avoid doing so…"

I thought about this advice and wondered if she was just messing with us. I got close to Alex and whispered.

"Hey Alex… Is she broken or something? She can't be serious."

He got an awkward grin on his face.

"Um no, it's true. If you die you can't finish the mission..."

Alex said as if he wasn't sure I would smack him or something. I paused for a moment and realized he was messing with me.

I laughed. He lost his awkward grin and put on a big smile because I was laughing at his joke.

I looked at the screen and entered with Aaron when given the green light. The rush that had become normal to me passed within seconds. I felt my feet hit the ground.

"We're here."


	17. Chapter 17

wiChapter Seventeen: Chunin Exams

It was midday in the anime and no one was around. We had arrived in an alley somewhere in the center of the city. Everything seemed peaceful and in its proper place.

"So what are we supposed to do?"

I asked, not really knowing much about the story I was in for once. I knew of the show but had never watched it, so I only knew what I was just told by the computer.

"The computer lady told us to enter the Chunin exam thing."

Midna stated as we all looked around.

"Yeah, I guess I better go do that now. I'll go find the leader of this place and ask him to let us in. It shouldn't be too hard. Midna, you stay here and make sure Stuart doesn't get us kicked out of the village."

Aaron said.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

I asked Midna who snickered.

"If anyone asks who you are, tell them you are ninjas from the village hidden in the storm. They won't know of it, so say you are foreigners from across the oceans and that should satisfy them. Just don't make a scene and we should be fine."

Aaron ordered before leaving Midna and I alone. We sat down and waited for him to return. After about ten minutes of waiting we heard someone demanding they put him down. We ran to see who it was and found a group of kids fighting.

There were seven of them all. I looked at all of them and checked them out to see what was going on. There were three little kids one of which was being held by his scarf. The two older boys seemed to be fighting. The blond kid in the orange jump suit was obviously losing to the kid with face paint. I watched as he reared back to punch the little kid.

I couldn't let a little kid be punched in the face so I stepped in by shooting a lightning bolt right in front of him. It startled him enough into dropping the kid. Everyone turned to look at me including the kid I just saved.

"Dude not cool, beating up on a little kid like that, you should be ashamed of yourself. Then again if I had to wear clown makeup all day I would be a little pissed too."

I said to the face painted kid.

"That stuff must murder for your pores."

Midna said in a valley girl voice.

"But like I said… Get going or it's gonna hurt."

I sneered as my eyes flickered with electricity.

"I agree... get lost?"

Another kid said as he jumped out of a tree branch.

He had a kind of I'm so bad ass attitude that's seemed familiar… except he seemed calm and collected instead of cocky and slightly spastic. I got ready for a fight as he took the mummy looking thing off his back.

"Kankuro, back off. You're an embarrassment to our village. Have you forgotten why we came all the way here?"

A very cold voice said from the same tree the last boy came from though this one was hanging upside down. This kid who looked a little younger than the others, though for some reason he gave the feeling of age. He proceeded to chastise the kid he called Kankuro. Kankuro looked absolutely terrified.

"I'm sorry for any trouble he may have caused."

He apologized as he looked at each of us stopping to get a better look at me and the other boy who came from the tree.

"Let's go, we didn't come here to play games."

The boy with the gourd on his back said before turning to sand then back to normal again. He looked at me with cold eyes like those of a soldier.

"Whoa, something up with that kid."

I whispered to Midna who whispered back

"Yeah, only the boys wore make up."

They began to leave when out of nowhere the pink-haired girl told them to show why foreign ninja were in their village. She was quickly shut up by the blonde with the over sized fan on her back. She told the three Leaf ninja about their own Chunin exams. I found out that the gourd kid was names Gaara and the other kid on the tree was Sasuke.

"I have no idea what's going on."

I told Midna who shrugged. The Sand ninjas left and it started to get a little uncomfortable so I spoke up.

"So there are other villages here to."

I blurted out not really sure what I was talking about. I clearly said something stupid because this made them look at me.

"Who are you two and where are you from? I've never even seen that symbol before."

The pink haired girl said as she looked at my belt buckle. She was getting a little annoying.

"I'm Stuart and this is Midna, we are from the village hidden in the storm. Who are you?"

I said, not sure what it meant.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha and they are Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki. I've never heard of your village. Where is it exactly?"

Sasuke asked coolly watching my every move with eyes like a hawk,

"Well we aren't from around here. We probably aren't even on any maps around here because we live on a small island across the sea east of the Lightning country. We heard about this competition things from a traveling ninja from this village. He told us we should join in by sending our best warriors, A.K.A. us and our friend who's introducing himself to your leader to get permission."

Midna answered with a cute smile.

"Whatever, long as you don't do anything inappropriate in my village you'll be fine with me. Don't let me catch you doing anything you aren't supposed to."

Sasuke threatened before leaving.

"So you two are ninja. Don't you think you look a little funny wearing those clothes?"

Naruto said as he looked at us. My black and red coat blowing slightly in the wind.

"Look who's talking. What kind of ninja wears a bright orange jumpsuit?"

I replied, curious as to how he snuck around. He just looked down, diddling his fingers while everyone laughed. We began to talk with each other and I found out lots about the story that might be helpful.

"Here you are. I told you to stay and what do you do? You leave."

It was Aaron who had come back with more official ID's for Midna and I. We had been given a hotel room and we went there to discuss are plan.

"Ok, here's what's gonna happen from what I know. There are three main parts to this exam, and we have to get through it all until we find and destroy the leader masquerading as a character. Our most likely target is this Orochimaru character, because he is the main villain. There's only like a three percent chance it will be anyone else. Other than that, all we have to do is keep the story going and live."

Aaron said as he looked from Midna to me.

"Ok, seems easy enough."

I said, wondering how Tyler was doing with his test.

"What are the three parts of the exam?"

Midna asked, being the one who always thinks ahead.

"I'm not sure because no one really will tell me, but I know it ends in a tournament."

Aaron said with a shrug.

"I bet they're all like super-hard ninja training things!"

I said wondering myself what they were. It was late, so we went to sleep. I awoke the next day with a knock on the door.

"Hey you guys, are you awake yet? We're going to go register for the exams, wanna' come with?"

It was Naruto. His house was apparently five doors down, so he stopped by. Midna and Aaron had already gotten up and answered the door.

"Sure why not? Eee hee."

Midna said with a friendly smile. I got up without breakfast, but luckily we stopped off at a Ramen bar for a quick bite to eat. I was learning more and more about the story just by watching the characters and listen to stories they were telling. Naruto and Sasuke were completely different, but they seemed almost like brothers to me. We arrived at a building and walked to a room that was being blocked off by two people. I watched as a kid that looked a lot like Bruce Lee get kicked to the ground.

"Wow, if we have to fight people like this we're not gonna have any fun."

Midna whispered to me, but according to Sasuke and Sakura the two had put something called a genjutsu on it, which I guessed was like an illusion to make us go to the wrong door. They then tried to attack Sasuke, but I rushed in to help him by stopping them both from fighting. I did this mainly to show off my speed because I wanted some attention myself. People looked astonished as expected.

"(Snicker) Lets go, no need to fight these losers."

I said to the others in an overly cocky tone that made even Midna sigh.

"Stop showing off Stuart."

Aaron said as weird kid stood up. I was then introduced to the Bruce Lee kid and his group. He told me he wanted to fight me, but I wouldn't do that to him after he just got his ass kicked by those two losers. It wouldn't be fair to him, so he left to go fight with Sasuke. Naruto and Sakura followed him, but we continued on to the next floor and met a man with white hair.

"So you three are the mystery ninja, eh?"

The man said with his one eye looking at us. He was tall and thin with bleached white hair that reminded me of Dante's except this guys hair stood on end. He wore a mask and had his headband covering one of his eyes.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Kakashi Hatake, Leader of Group Seven. Naruto has told me a lot about you. I was assigned to keep an eye on you three. You must understand, your strangers in our village."

He seemed to be a normal guy, considering the whole random introduction thing.

"I was watching you over there and was impressed with your skills. I'm curious as to what else you can do with that lightning of yours. I was wondering if I could interest you to a friendly sparing match."

This Kakashi said to me as we walked up to him. I thought it over and decided that it would be a good idea to not let the village have any reason not to trust us plus I could learn more about the story. I didn't want to just blindly go into a tournament not knowing what to expect.

"Spar...? Sure, I don't see why not. But first we need to sign up."

I shrugged as we walked in the room to sign up for the Exam. The Kakashi guy was rather straight forward but didn't seem to have any bad intentions.

"Stuart, what do you think you're doing?"

Aaron asked me as I followed Kakashi.

"I'm getting kinda bored of waiting and wanna' see how strong these ninja are."

I said calmly.

"Whatever, I'll be waiting at the hotel. Don't wake me when you get back."

Aaron said as he left.

"You coming, Midna?"

I asked as she watched Aaron leave.

"Why not? I was going to go look around this place, but I guess I could do it afterwards. Don't want you getting too lonely."

It was nice outside. There was a light wind and it was sunny. Kakashi had taken us to the middle of a forest before turning to talk to us.

"Will both you be fighting?"

He asked looking lazily at us.

"You want to join?"

I asked Midna who didn't really seem to care either way.

"Go have your little sparing match, I'm good. I will just watch"

Midna said to a surprised Kakashi and myself.

"Well you lightning ninja are very bold, aren't you? Ok, seeing as it's a one on one fight let's keep it simple. It will be a no holds barred match, which ends soon as one of us gives up or can't fight. Midna was it? Since you aren't fighting could you be our proctor?"

Kakashi said as he stood there smiling through his mask.

"Sure. Why not?"

She said as she hopped down from a tree she was resting in.

"Whatever. I'll do my best to not hurt you too bad."

I said cockily.

"That's too bad… Because if you do that, there's no way you can win."

He said calmly. There was no doubt that he knew what he was doing,

"Come at me when you're ready to begin."

He said as I took off Alastor and the twins, not wanting to use any lethal force. Only to pick them back up seeing him take out a knife. I was surprised to find that he could nearly match my speed. I punched and kicked but since I had no really practice in hand to hand combat, I was countered every time. It looked like the inverse ninja rule was correct.(The more enemy ninja there are the weaker the enemy ninja are.)

"This is going to be a lot more interesting than I expected."

I said as I landed one of my kicks sending him flying.

"You really shouldn't let your guard down like that."

I heard from below me as the Kakashi I had just kicked poofed into a log.

"What the hell?"

I said, jumping just in time to get away from Kakashi, who burst out of the ground. He threw knives at me that I barely dogged. Dozens more throwing stars came at me from behind. I shot them all down before letting loose with some lightning. With a few quick hand gestures he yelled,

"Sharingan!"

He pulled up his headband to reveal a blood red eye.

"What's this? What type of jutsu are you using?"

He said sounding a little stunned before getting blasted.

"How did you do that log thing?"

I asked as Kakashi log poofed once again.

"You can't be serious?"

Kakashi chuckled before realizing that I was.

"It's a simple replacement jutsu. Surely you know what that is?"

He asked as we both stopped fighting.

"Oh, do you mean that mana stuff you call chakra?"

I said as I remembered that Naruto had told me about chakra and how it was like the force.

"Are you telling me you have no idea how to do a simple substitution jutsu?"

Kakashi asked.

"Nope, I got no idea what that is at all."

I shrugged to a very confused yet intrigued Kakashi

"The lightning ninja don't use chakra. We don't need to because we are born with the powers. I wonder how your Lighting will compare to my Chidori"

This seemed to intrigue Kakashi even more. All of the sudden his right hand became a giant ball of electricity. He lunged at me but I countered with Alastor that absorbed all of the electricity.

It was weird to have gone from fighting to talking about are powers. We continued to fight as we discussed are abilities. Kakashi was giving me a good work out and I was learning valuable information. He explained more in-depth about Chakra and its uses. I also explained about my powers. To be quite honest I had become quite use to being questioned about them by now and had no problems simplifying it.

Ninjas could do amazing things and I would have to be able to think on my toes in here. One minute he would be coming at me with a knife the next there would be a giant water dragon.

It was a good thing I had fought Kakashi because of all the stuff I learned. To my dismay, the fight didn't last much longer. It eventually ended with both of us getting tired and giving up. Apparently, Chakra was like any other magic and had a limit to how much it could be used.

I went back and reported to Aaron of what I learned, but I found him sleeping and didn't want to wake him. It was getting late, so we went to bed. The next day came fast. We walked into the crowded room to find Naruto and his team mates. It seemed as though we were in a giant class room full of stressed out teens.

"Hey look, its high school!"

Aaron whispered as we walked in. Everyone, and I mean everyone, turned to look at us.

"Hey Aaron, it looks like we're the popular kids at school... For once."

I said seeing this. You could hear muttering about the mystery ninja and about the nine rookies. Naruto started to yell at the entire class room.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna beat every one of ya. Believe it!"

Everyone turned their attention to him instead.

'Believe it… What the fuck, is that his catch phrase?'

I thought to myself as I looked at the people standing around Naruto's team. They all seemed to know each other. The three of us didn't want to draw any more attention to us so we stood back. I looked around the room looking for Gaara and soon found him. I was still wondering about the kid and what was up with him.

I looked at him and for some reason I began to feel pity. I don't know why but it almost felt like her was crying out for help. It must have been the look in his eyes that made me feel it. They reminded me of my own eyes when I was younger… Before I met Tyler. Thinking about it was bringing back bad memories so I stopped looking at him and focused on the mission.

"So what do you think the first part of the exam is?"

I asked Midna.

"I don't know, but it looks like we are about to find out."

She said as she pointed to a man with an extremely scarred face, who began to yell.

"All right you baby faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up! It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino, your first proctor and from this moment, your worst enemy!"

He told us to draw lots and that gave us our seats. I had no idea where Aaron or Midna where sitting but that didn't matter. I was getting a little excited to find out what the first part would be.

'Maybe it will be a test to see how many bells we can take off a dummy in the dark without making a noise, or maybe it will be a reflex test were we have to dodge a bunch of weapons, this guy's got to have a good test with all those scars he's got.'

I thought to myself.

"Now that everyone is in their seat we can begin. The first part of the Chunin Exams will be… A written test."

My jaw dropped. A freakin test. I could hear Tyler laughing at me in my head and what he would say if he could see me now.

'Haha! Sucks for you.'

'Shit, I guess I will have to wait for a cooler test.'

I thought to myself as the director told us the rules and how there would be one question that would be given verbally at the end. I was fine I though because I was pretty smart, so I stayed calm. That was until I got the test. I had no idea what it said because it was all in Japanese.

'FUCK ME!'

I though as I panicked when I realized who I was sitting next to. It was Naruto and that meant I had to just copy what he did, since he was the main character, he would have to pass the test. The test started and I had my suit keep a look on Naruto's paper, I didn't want to get caught cheating. I couldn't since he just sat there looking extremely nervous.

I suddenly realized what must have happen. I must have taken the person he cheats off spot or something. Now the only way to even possibly pass the test would to hope to god that Midna and Aaron could do the test with good enough grades and that I could at least get the verbal question right. I knew Midna would definitely be able to pass it, because she would just randomly know things that you wouldn't expect anyone to, and Japanese was one of them. And Aaron was smart enough to figure out a way to cheat. He always did at school, even though he didn't need to with how smart he was.

It had only been an hour, but I was getting stressed that I would make us fail the mission. It was like torture. Finally the time came for the final question. Even though it came with its own rules about not being able to retake the exams ever if you got it wrong that didn't change the fact that I would have to stay for it. It's not like I would need to retake the quiz ever again. I looked at Naruto's test with my suit and saw that it was blank just like mine. I saw him begin to raise his hand to be called out and when he did everything stopped for about a minute.

Even the proctors who had been calling out numbers left and right stopped. I felt awkward so I didn't move either. It seemed like forever before Naruto finally lost it shouted that he would never give up. It was pretty corny, but he seemed like he was confident and made everyone else feel confident as well. Finally after a few more minutes Ibiki start again.

"Well then, I admire your determination if nothing else. For those of you remaining there's only one thing left to do. And that's for me to tell you … That you have all passed your first exam…"

"Hold on, what just happened what do you mean we passed? Where's the tenth question?"

Sakura asked before I could even process what he just said.

'Que?'

I thought to myself and didn't bother wondering why I was thinking in Spanish. I was so relieved to hear that all you had to do to pass the test was stay for the final question and that the other questions were just there to test the ninja's information gathering skills. I was just letting myself calm down when a women burst through the window and started to yell.

"Heads up boys and girls this is no time to be celebrating. I'll be your next proctor Anko Mitarashi. You ready? Let's go, follow me!"


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen: Dream of Doubt

After a few moments of awkward silence Ibiki came out from behind the sign.

"You're early. Again…"

He said making Anko blush. I however didn't really care when the next test was. I was more curious as to how her coat always stayed perfectly in place without showing her... dirty pillows. Before I knew it every one was leaving. I soon found Midna and Aaron who stood next to the leaf ninja. They seemed to be getting friendlier and friendlier with us. It was probably because they were the main characters who tend to always be really nice once you had become a hero type person to them.

"Hey Stu, Have fun?"

Midna smiled happily

"So what you think about that test?"

Aaron asked,

"It was too easy."

Midna said before I could say how I almost didn't pass.

"Yeah it was pretty easy. I just wish they let me listen to my iPod when I was finished, Waiting for a half an hour with nothing to do sucks."

Aaron agreed.

"...Yeah… easy"

I said with a hint of sarcasm. We had the rest of the day to rest up and prepare for the next test, whatever it was.

"So what should we do?"

Midna asked as we said by to the others ninja.

"Well I don't know what you wanna' do?"

I asked Aaron who seemed to be acting a little funny.

"Aaron?"

I asked again seeing he for once was acting serious.

"Were being fallowed…"

Aaron said as we kept on walking.

"You think they're Manifest?"

Midna asked a little excited for a good fight.

"Yeah I think so. They are gonna attack any second now."

Aaron said taking the guitar case off his back.

"Looks like we are gonna have some fun."

I said getting ready to draw the twins. I looked the empty street we were in and saw nothing. I could hear nothing but Aaron slowly unzipping the case and very faint footsteps.

"Hey guys what ya doin'?"

It was Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto seemed oblivious to the impending danger but its seams that Sasuke understood. He opened a pouch on his back and took out a shuriken.

"Naruto don't move."

Sasuke ordered Naruto as we all looked around.

"… This is stupid come out already …"

I shouted finally getting bored. Midna looked at me with a smirk. I had become a little too cocky it seemed

"Looks like they pulled back"

Sasuke said when my spider sense went off.

"Shit, there going for Naruto and Sasuke."

Aaron said before taking a blue sitar out of the case. I looked at Naruto and Sasuke and saw that they had been surprised attacked by about ten ninja.

I got ready to save them when I heard the roar of a sitar. I looked at Aaron to see what the hell he was thinking. I saw that he was being surrounded by a title wave of water. I forgot that we were in a battle and said with a big smile

"Nice. Finally Demix's sitar gets so action."

But I had been interrupted but a ninja who threw knives at me. Suddenly Aaron hit a really nice cord sending jets or water off at every direction killing most of the Manifest ninja.

"Who's bad ass now Stuart? Haha"

Aaron belted as he started to play a rift. I could smell the familiar sent of dieing Manifest.

"Keep it up Aaron, A good party has to have music."

I said to Aaron who continued to play sending more and more jets of water at the alarming number of ninjas that appeared. There water pressure was so strong that they cute concrete clear in half when it hit it. Midna still had about two to play with but the ones Naruto and Sasuke were fighting had all been killed in one attack. But still more came. They seemed to be more into hand to hand fighting then into using the ninjutsu stuff. Somehow they seemed to dampen my spider sense making me rely on my normal senses. I was fighting off five ninjas at a time when I got stabbed in the shoulder not expecting it. I fried the Ninjas around me and pulled out the blade. I bled from the wound but it didn't faze me. I had gotten worse in Devil May Cry.

'So, it looks like they got a few new tricks up their sleeves this time.'

I thought to myself as I let my wound heal, though it would ache throughout the battle.

"That's all you got, common! I have gotten a spike threw the chest , I've been shot, I have even had my arm half torn off, hell a demon once tried to skin me. You think a little knife in the shoulder will stop me?"

I cried out as I fought off the oncoming Manifest still narrowly avoiding shuriken and ninja start though I couldn't avoid all of them. They seemed to listen to me and began to come at me with spears and swords. Seeing the glowing white eyes of the ninja reminded me of Duma witch both made me angry and scared at the same time.

Aaron, whom I was seeing fight for the first time, was kicking some major ass. Midna was out of sight behind a building. I knew I wouldn't have to worry about her getting hurt but I wasn't as confident in the story characters. I looked at Sasuke and the half dozen Naruto's to see they were doing pretty good. But they seemed to be struggling with the increasing number of enemies. Out of nowhere this green blur came whizzing by.

"Leaf Hurricane! I can't believe I almost missed this fight!"

The Rock Lee kid cheered as he jumped into the battle doing a spinning kick.

"Don't worry I will save you."

He said as he helped out the Naruto's who were being attacked without end. I was actually impressed with him now. It seemed he was faking how weak he was when I first met him. He wasn't the only one that had arrived.

"Way to go Akamaru!"

A wild looking kid barked as he and um… himself fought alongside Sasuke and the others.

I couldn't help but think that there was a cloning machine somewhere as I saw more and more Naruto's appearing out of nowhere. Soon there were five more people showing up to fight with us. With all of us together it was soon over. The last of the Manifest began to dissolve and disappear.

"Is every one ok?"

Aaron asked every one as he kissed his sitar and putting her away. No one seemed to be hurt except for me and Naruto. He was cut up pretty bad but he was acting like he was fine. And my suit had already started to mend my cuts.

"What was that about? Such a drag,"

Shikamaru moaned lazily.

"Who cares? It doesn't matter now that we flattened them. Believe it!"

Naruto said posing like a normal anime person would.

"But it does. Don't you see? We were attacked and we still don't know who it was."

Kakashi said as he tried to examine what was now a half dissolved Manifest corpse.

"You three what was this about?"

Sasuke asked coldly as he eyeballed us.

"It's not good. It seems that we have some uninvited guests who want us dead."

Aaron said as he put the sitar back on his back.

"It looks like he's trying to kill us after all."

Midna said going along with Aaron. I said my line for this kind of situation.

"You know how we never even knew about this place until we were told about it?"

Sasuke looked intrigued.

"Well the person, who told us about you, was unbeknownst to us at the time a rouge ninja from this village."

I went on trying to get there support back.

"You can't mean Orochimaru?"

Kakashi said seeming to read my mind.

"Bingo."

I said

"He came to our island and told us to send our best warriors to fight in this competition. He had tried to lure us out of our village. He captured us and was going to experiment on us but we managed to break out. We thought he might try to get at us again if we came to this tournament. And it seems that we were right."

Kakashi looked at us a moment but nodded accepting what we said. They younger people seemed to fallow suet

If we were going to find the Manifest leader we would need some help and now we had the entire village on look out for him. It was later that day when we had finally met back up in our place.

"It seems that it has started. They will be sending more out after us soon so be on your guard."

Aaron said as he shut the door to the hotel.

"No worries, if they come I will just have to kick there ass again."

I boasted as I lay down next to Midna who would leave to her world soon. I didn't wanna let them know I was slightly worried because these new Manifest could get past my spider sense witch I had gotten used to relying on. I felt my shoulder where I had gotten stabbed and realized that I wasn't going to be able to slack off when fighting any more. Not just that but fighting the Manifest once again reminded me of what nearly happened in Kingdom Hearts. A few minutes passed as we got ready for bed.

"…Midna?"

I whispered to Midna who was still lying in bed with me

"Yeah Stu?"

She said as she looked away from her book with a smile.

"What would you do if I died?"

I said as Aaron snored in the next room. Midna gave me the don't be silly look and said to me

"Stuart, that's a really stupid question. You know that? If you died that would mean I was dead already, because I will always be there by your side even if it means risking my life to save yours."

"No you won't, promise me that if only one of us can live that you will. I won't have you dieing over me."

I demanded not wanting to put Midna in any danger.

"I'm sorry, I can't promise you that. I guess that means neither of us can die then… Eee hee."

Midna giggled as she grind.

"I guess you're right."

I said to Midna as she gave me a kiss.

"Of cores I'm right. I protect you, and you protect me. There's no way that we can lose as long as we stick together. I will always be here when you need me."

She said with a smirk.

"So will I, just call out and I will be there."

I said to Midna who stood up.

"I know you will Eee hee. Well any ways I have to go home now. I'll be back soon as possible ok. Later hun."

Midna said before winking and falling into my shadow.

I was now alone now and my mind began to wander into places I would rather it didn't. I was not able to block the images out of my head. It was about my first day of high school.. I had always been put down over everything I ever did because of this and never had any friends.

'Loser, nerd, get away weirdo, what a fag'

I could hear voices of people I once knew saying to me. I was just starting water polo and no matter what I did I was always put down because …well I didn't fit in. I wasn't that I want good at it. People just think I am weird. I was to put it quit plainly and athletic nerd who liked singing… quite a strange mix. To top it off I never learned how to act around people because I was not able to learn in my earlier years. Traveling from place to place never let me get any friends so eventually I gave up on it. It just made me look even odder when I tried to make friend anyways. I remember how I would always be teased. Though every now and then someone would talk to me but it never lasted. But one good thing did come out of it. I learned how to be a kind person. I just had to not do what everyone else did to me. It made me want to help people like me. I guess that's why I liked Midna so much she always seemed so lonely and I wanted to help her.

The only thing that ever really gave me any sense of pride was choir. I loved doing it even if I was not the best and every one there was at least somewhat nice to me. I felt my left hand start to glow from the Triforce of Friendship. My mind had gone then to the day I met Tyler. He was in my choir class but he never really talked and I didn't notice him. I probably would never have met him if it wasn't for one thing…The Nightmare before Christmas. It is my favorite movie. It was the end of class when I heard it.

'There are few who deny it, what I do I am the best.'

It was Jacks Lament from the movie. I stayed around to see who was singing because he was really good. It was then I saw him in one of the practice rooms. He had a sleeveless Nightmare shirt on. I was astonished at how well he could sing. It took me a few seconds to work up the courage to talk to him.

'Um, hi.'

I said as I walked into the practice room he was in.

'Oh hey what up?'

He said in a slightly awkward voice looking up from the piano.

'I heard you singing and it was um cool I though.'

I muttered as I slowly walked in.

'Thanks you wanna' hang out?'

Tyler said bluntly,

'Really? Sure.'

I said as I introduced myself. From that point on we were best friends. He's always been there to get my back no matter what it was whether I was being picked on or I was looking for someone to play Halo with. After remembering this I began to wonder how Tyler was doing. Was he ok…was he in great pain… was he feeling great… had he passed the test or… had he failed. I then remembered the promise Tyler and I had made to each other.

'No matter what happens we will always have each other's back.'

He said one night.

'You got it.'

I told him back. It was a simple promise but we have been keeping it ever since. I dwelled on this for a long time but eventually I fell asleep.

The next day I woke up and all was quiet and the sun had not even started to rise. The air felt thick and icy as I took a breath in. I kept my eye closed because I was still too tired to think. Then something happened that was very familiar. I felt five cold and clammy fingers wrap themselves around my neck. I opened my eyes to see the same boy with straight black hair and pale grey completion pulling me out of my bed by my neck once again. Except this time he was wearing rounded wire rim glasses but other than that he was the same. I watched choking as the boys face twisted into and evil smile. He started to Chuckle at me struggling. This felt so real but like last time I had lost all my strength and was unable to do anything. I saw his lips move once again as the darkness began to swallow me up.

"You'll never win. Failure!"

But instead of letting the darkness swallow me this time I fought back.

"No!"

I started to say something only to see Midna on the ground dieing. She looked up at me with her ruby eyes and said in a gargled voice.

'How could you let this happen… your letting the organization kill Tyler… you said you'd protect us'

Her words felt like I was being hit by a wrecking ball. I lost all control and couldn't fight back any more.

"They will all DIE and it will be because of you."

He cackled as I woke up screaming.

"It's not real! It's not real! IT'S NOT REAL!"

I was breathing heavier than I ever had before in my life and my head was beating so fast it seemed like it was going to explode. I reached for my thought and like last time felt nothing except sweat and my skin. I had been crying in my sleep and was still.

"It…it's just a dream… Man what is wrong with me?"

I told myself once again. I started to calm down when I noticed the music being played in the back ground. Aaron must have gotten up before me. I looked at the clock and saw that it was still early. I lie down and listen to Aaron playing some random classical music on his sitar which helped to calm me down. Later that day, we all got up and head out to the next testing zone. I was still shaken up about the dream.

"You ok Stuart?"

Aaron said as I snapped back to my normal self

"Yeah I'm fine… just didn't sleep well 'Yawn'."

I said with a care free attitude.

"Aw did Stuart miss me so much he couldn't sleep?"

Midna said in a poor baby voice. I was glad to see her and hear her voice so I replied

"You know it babe… you know it."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen: Eyes

"Wow look at this place. It's huge."

I grinned as we came to an enormous forest that was gated off.

"Crap looks like we are going to have a lot of walking to do."

Aaron said as we got closer.

"So you like it. Good. This is the location for the second phase of the exam. It's the 44th battle training zone but we call it… The Forest of Death."

Anko said to everyone.

"Oo Forest of Death… I bet it's filled with Squirrelies and cute wittle bunny wabbits. I wuv Bunnies."

I boasted being my normal smart ass self when my spider sense went off. I moved my head to the left dodging the kuni that Anko threw at me.

"Looks like we got a tough guy."

She said as she appeared behind me with a knife to my throat.

"Yup, I'm a real toughie. Now how about you get off my back before my sword gets testy and kills ya? It doesn't like being in cramped places."

I said grabbing the knife by the blade to pull it away.

"Hm, Fine."

She said with a smile and walked back to her place to tell everyone the rules, which basically were get another scroll form another team and go here kinda deal. About fifteen minutes after we signed the release form when Midna came up to me

"Looks like someone has a stalker."

She whispered as she gestured to a girl. She was licking her lips with an extremely long tong and was staring at me.

"Creepy."

I replied to Midna and Aaron.

"Why don't you go over there and talk to her?"

Aaron chuckled teasingly.

"Shut up Aaron."

I said rolling my eyes.

"Why not, I thought you liked girls?"

Aaron said ribbing me. Midna glared at him witch made Aaron stop laughing.

"What do you think you're doing Aaron? You know Stuart belongs to me."

Midna said petting my head I purred like a cat had my suit give me fuzzy ears. Though I was ignoring her the girl did not take her eyes from me. I felt like I was being spied on which I probably was. About an hour went by when it was time to start the next part of the exam. We had gotten an earth scroll and though I knew I shouldn't I wonder what was on the inside.

"So what do you thinks inside of this. Maybe it's another backwards test were we are supposed to open it. What do you think Aaron? Maybe we should open it to see what's inside of it."

I asked taking the scroll from Midna as we got ready to enter. Aaron quickly grabbed it back.

"I think its naked pictures of that old guy they call Hokage. Now don't look at it!"

He demanded as he gave the scroll back to Midna. Midna and I gave each other the wow that's gross look. It was not time to start the exam.

"Remember, our plan is to get through this as fast as possible. The sooner we get to the end of this saga the sooner we can find the leader and get back home."

Aaron said as the gate opened and we sped off to find a heaven scroll as fast as possible. It didn't take us long to find some unsuspecting ninja just hopping along. We didn't recognize them so we figured they were the best people to attack. They were leaf ninja and I didn't want to kill them so I just shot them with a bolt of lightning. It was only enough to knock out a horse. They didn't see it coming so I scored a direct hit.

"Wow that was too easy."

I said as I reached into the pouch of a white haired boy with glasses.

"What the fuck is up with the ninjas in this story, wearing bright orange jump suits and glasses."

I said as I looked at eyes of the kid who suddenly came to life. He grabbed my arm and dislocated it nearly tearing it off.

"Agh. Son of a bitch!"

I shouted before he kicked me into a tree. I looked at Aaron and Midna who were now fighting him. I screamed as I put my arm back in its socket and jumped down to join them. I landed right in front of Midna.

"Reflega!"

I shouted as a shell came up around Midna and me, blocking a flurry of blades. The Boy was obviously going for Midna thinking she was the weakest. He was giggling at me as I blocked all the throwing stars. I was surprised to see how fast this kid was. Suddenly a few kuni came from behind us. Midna jumped out of the way but still got hit by two of them. I looked at Midna who was bleeding glowing blood from gashes in her arm.

"Oh you are so fucking dead ass hole!

I shouted as I lunged for the ninja pinning him to a tree with Alastor. All he did was stare at me with a big grin as he went limp. I pulled out Alastor and quickly decapitated the bastard who was still staring at me threw his cold dead eyes. It was just like Kevin from Sin City.

"Damn it Stuart, I thought you said they would be out for an hour."

Aaron panted as he reached into the pocket of the boy pulling out a heaven scroll. I wiped the blood off not wanting to say anything about it.

'What happened he should have been out cold?'

I thought to myself as I wiped of Alastor.

"Whatever Aaron at least we got the scroll. It's not his fault that they were stronger that he expected."

Midna said looking at the severed head which was still smiling.

"Yeah I guess your right… I wonder who this guy was. Let's see… Kabuto Yakushi."

Aaron read aloud as he looked at the ninjas ID.

"Whatever. Let's just get out of here. I don't feel like camping out right now."

I said as I buried the body and stuck in a little wooden cross Aaron made that said his name. I was still pissed off so I added that ass hole with glasses in little print. We kept on going now that we had finished. When we heard a cry for help and me being a curious little guy decided we needed to go check it out. We soon came to a clearing where the sand ninja along with three other people were. We arrived to see a writhing mass of sand engulfing one of the ninjas who looked terrified. The sand then crushed the guy. The other to pleaded for their life and there scroll without a fight. He took it and then proceeded to killed them as well.

"Wow, who's that?"

Aaron asked as we left them behind. Not wanting to fight anyone we didn't need to.

"What was his name again…? Gaara of the Funk I think."

I asked not remembering what he said to Sasuke.

"The desert Stuart, his name was Gaara of the Desert. Gaara of the funk sounds like a bad parody name."

Midna said as we came to a large tower in the center of the arena. We walked in to find it was empty. After a few minutes of looking around we realized we needed to open the scrolls here.

"No Aaron, we don't wanna see old people porn…"

I yelled as he opened them up and set them on the ground. They exploded into a bunch of smoke. As it settled the image of a man became easier and easier to see. He had his face hidden behind a book.

"Kakashi, how's it going?"

I said recognizing the spiky white hair.

"What, done already? Hum...I must say I'm rather impressed. So you pass. Looks like you get to wait for four more days. Have fun now if you don't mind it's the good part."

Kakashi muttered before poofing off again.

"Well that's was odd."

Midna said as we were joined by three more people along with a little dog.

"Puppy!"

Midna and I squeed as we ran up to it and started to pet it. We talked with Kiba's group for a little while before the next set of people came. It was the Gaara kids group. No one said a word as they walked by. It was an odd feeling to have this kind of tension because of story character. It was like he was hiding something.

'What up with that guy? There's something not quite right with him. Even his team mates seem on edge around him.'

I thought as I watched Gaara's group leave. No one felt like talking much after he had come. But later we forgot he was even here. The days went by slowly but soon the final day came. There were twenty one people that made it including us. All the newbie ninja had made it along with Lee's group. There was Gaara's group along with one of the sound ninjas group. It was a long and boring speech but finally the third proctor came.

"I'm Hayate Gekko (Cough, cough) I have something to say before we move onto the third stage. We have to have preliminary round. (Cough, cough)"

Gekko muttered with lots of coughing. He asked if any of us would like to give up. No one did so we started.

"All right then, we will begin the preliminary round. This round will consist of one on one, individual combat at full battle intensity. This is not an exercise. There are twenty one of you left so that means we will need ten matched and one of you will be lucky enough to get an automatic entry. The surviving candidates will move on to the third stage of the exam. For the rules there are none. You will fight till one dies or conceits defeat or is rendered incapable of wining the contest. Naturally those who are losing are urged to concede defeat promptly to avoid a fatal outcome. Furthermore I as Procter I am granted a certain amount of leeway in judging a match. (Cough) I might occasionally intervene if a match seems hopeless, to save as many lives as possible. Now it's time to revile what fait has been chosen for you."

Gekko said then a computer screen appeared on the wall.

'Wait they have computers, but they still use birds instead of phones… what the fuck?'

I thought as Hayate went on.

"If there's nothing more to say let's begin. In a moment the names of the first two opponents will appear."

And moments after he said that Aaron and the sound ninja with the broken arms name were called up. Aaron watched as Midna and I walked up the platform. Aaron began to take out Demix's sitar. It didn't really make sense how he had it seeing is it was part of Demix in the first place so I made a mental note to ask Aaron how he got possession of it.

"Hey Mid, check this out. That sitar can be pretty wicked… let's see if Aaron has what it takes."

"What kind of music do you like?"

Aaron asked as the room stared. But the ninja didn't answer he just shot a sound wave at Aaron. Aaron ran a pick down the strings making an even stronger blast of water completely stopping the attackers and said.

"Music hater hum. Maybe I can show you something you like. How about some rock. Let's see what might you like… oh I know how about a little… TROGDOR!"

Aaron said before rocking out to the Trogdor song. Unlike me he didn't trash talk nonstop because he was sing along. Aaron had complete control over water when he was playing that sitar. It danced and swirled around him like it was a rock concert. Midna and I couldn't help but laugh. Aaron was kicking ass with the Trogdor song. The blast of water hitting the ninja like rockets along with visible sound waves that broke the stone floor as they hit them made it rather amusing. Every time they hit they must have felt like being hit by a mallet. It was over fast and just around the end of the song.

"Wow Aaron very impressive."

I applauded to Aaron, who had a stupid grin on his face,

"Yes, such a beautiful song."

Midna added on.

"Too bad I couldn't just have sat up here and played though"

Aaron complained. The next two matches were pretty boring ones. Next up was Sakura against Ino then the Chung lee Tenten girl verses the fan girl Temari. Next up was Midna verses Shikimaru.

"Great I have to fight the mystery girl. What a drag."

Shikimaru moaned as they walked down to fight each other.

"I was just bout to say the same thing."

Midna said as she stepped down to the arena.

'Sucks for him, he has no idea how boned he is.'

I thought to myself as they got ready to fight. Soon as it started she began her attack. Once again her fighting style was a lot like a dance with how elegant it was. His way of fighting was almost the complete opposite of hers. He did easy and uncomplicated moves as possible. Midna kept on her tows not letting him get an attack in, Midna looked like she was enjoying herself when she was attacked by his shadow. She stood there frozen in the same position and couldn't move it seemed.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu..."

He said with a smirk

"Oh noes whatever shall I do now? Eee hee!"

Midna gasped mockingly as she slipped into his shadow. Before he could realize what she had done she came up from under him and did a leg uppercut knocking him unconscious.

"Nice try kid. You just got unlucky that I was the one you fought."

Midna said as she walked back up to me. After every one but three people had gone including Gaara, Rock Lee and myself the time came. Finally my time came when mine and Gaara's name appeared on the screen. Everyone but Midna, Aaron and looked worried. Midna and Aaron watched calmly as I turned to face Gaara. He was staring coldly back at me. It was like I was looking into the eyes of a demon. I looked deeper into his eyes thinking of the old saying that you can tell a lot about someone just by looking into their eyes. After looking for a few seconded I thought I saw deep within his eyes a glimmer of sorrow.

'What the fuck is wrong with this guy? It's gonna drive me bat shit crazy if I don't find out.'

I thought as the match began. Gaara didn't move. The only thing he did was uncorking his gourd and let the sand poor out. I threw Alastor into the ceiling not wanting to kill the kid if didn't have to. I was becoming overly curious about the kid and decided it was time to find out more.

"So what your story?"

I said as neither of us moved. I asked again but he didn't move. Suddenly my spider sense went off. I jumped as the sand closed around me. I barely escaped it and landed on the ceiling. Gaara was getting an evil grin.

"I need more blood! I need to kill! I need to feel alive!"

He screamed like a mad man. I could feel his blood lust.

"Looks like someone needs to get an ass whoopen'."

I said before bounding down at him. I was quickly blocked by the sand but easily got around it. I gave him a left hook to the chin knocking him into a wall.

"What no one has ever hit me... What's this? It's warm."

He said as he felt his bloody lip. He looked shocked as he screamed

"It's blood! It's my blood!"

He looked as if he was going into shock as he started to breathe heavier and heavier.

"Yeah, you're in a fight your probably gonna start to bleed, what's your problem?"

I said as he started to coat himself in his sand.

"You've done it now, you gotten him worked up. Now we are all gonna die."

Kankuro yelled seeming worried,

"What are you talking about?"

I asked Kankuro but was answered by Gaara himself.

"You said you wanted to know my story I'm not like other people."

Gaara then proceeded to tell me about his past and how when he was a just a baby his father put a demon in him. He even killed his own mother.

"The demon inside me thirsts for blood and you've gone and awakened him…. You don't know what it's like to have a demon inside of you, what it's like to be ostracized as a child. There's no way you even image what that's like. Not being accepted, having no one and no reason to live. Now the only way to feel alive is to kill. As long as I am alive I will keep killing."

Gaara growled as he head his head like it was about to explode. All of the sudden everything went black then I reappeared without my body. I was in a city with lots of sand everywhere. I had no idea what was going on when I noticed a few kids playing kick ball. I watched as the ball was kicked onto of a 30 foot wall.

'Well that sucks'

I thought to myself right before the ball flouted down into a child's hand. I looked at the kid and saw a young Gaara.

'What the fuck? Is this a… flash back?'

I thought to myself because with no mouth I couldn't talk. I watched as little Gaara tried to give the ball back to the other kids. He was just being nice but the kids yelled at him and acted like he was an evil monster. From what I saw Gaara used to be nice. To me it seemed like the other kids were the evil ones. Gaara freaked out and started to send sand at the kids. He was stopped by a man. Gaara called out a name and everything went black again. I reappeared in a room where Gaara was standing with a knife. I watched as Gaara raised it attempting to stab himself in the hand. It was blocked by his sand. The man walked in and they started to talk. As they did I felt worse and worse for Gaara. He talked about how he had never been hurt and didn't know what it was like. He held his chest and asked if what he was feeling there was pain. The man comforted him by telling him his sand was like his mom who gave her life for him. The man was his uncle, his mom's brother.

'Man I thought I was a lonely kid.'

I thought to myself as it went to another scene. It was late at night and Gaara was sitting on top of a building. He was crying by himself. I wanted to talk to him but couldn't do anything but watch. Out of nowhere Gaara's sand stopped a flurry of kuni. Gaara sand attacked the man crushing him. Gaara came up to the man crying and pulled off the mask to revile that it was the man. It was so fucked up. The man who had just told Gaara he would always be there for him and love him was telling Gaara how he hated him. A little kid being told he was hated by everyone.

'You ass hole!'

I screamed in my head, but the flash back was over and there older Gaara was. He was started to form a giant arm of sand. It looked like he was losing control of himself. As the sand covered Gaara his team mates began to panic. Gaara was now looking more and more like a monster but I wasn't too scared of a little demon inside someone. After all I fought off hundreds of demon before. I was more irritated at how bad the kid was messed up.

'The writers are pretty fucked up having that shit happen to a little kid. He thinks that he has to kill to feel alive. He needs help… and I'm the one who has to give it to him. It's time for some tough love.'

I thought to myself. I felt so bad for him and couldn't just let him hate the world the way he does.

"Boohoo no one likes me because I have a demon inside me. You're pathetic!"

I said as I dogged his oncoming attacks. The room was being destroyed. And it looked like the older ninja where about to step in.

"Kakashi back off I got this covered!"

I growled right before he stepped in. Gaara was now a giant sand monster, kind of like a raccoon.

"You may have a demon inside of you but I can do you one better… I am a demon! …Well a half of a demon but still!"

I roared as I went into devil trigger mode. The entire room looked at me intently not sure what I was going to do. For a moment Gaara's eyes looked almost human beneath all that sand. There would be only one way to get through to him. I rushed him and kept at pounding away at the sand.

"You're an idiot it you need to kill to feel alive! You say you never had any friends, well maybe if you don't kill every one you meet you might, retard!"

Gaara was helpless to stop me from punching and kicking him into submission.

"How can you be doing this? No one's stronger than me. No get away, get away from me!"

Gaara said panicking as he began to realize he was not going to win. I could see the demon behind his eyes as I said,

"If you need a friend, hell I'll be your friend, just stop killin' people you don't need to!"

I got down to the real Gaara inside of the sand shell and gave him one last punch to the face knocking him out of his sand shell. The entire room fell silent for what seemed like hours. Gaara who lay on the ground and barley able to move looked up at me and with the last bit of time he had before going unconscious and said.

"Why are you doing this? Why don't you finish me?"

"Being alone is a terrible feeling I know that, but you can never give up no matter what. You just got to try."

I replied just in time before he passed out. My match was over. I caught Alastor as it fell from the ceiling. Hayate called my name as victor.

'He better fucking listen to me or else I am gonna kick his ass again.'

I thought to myself as we were told we had now received a break.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty: The Final Trial

It was a little while later when Gaara finally came too. I was sitting by his bed waiting for him to wake up.

"Finally you are up. I have been waiting for three days now. Jeez I didn't hit you that hard. Did I?"

I said as Gaara opened his eyes. He looked at me not with eyes of a monster but with that of the little boy I saw in the flash back. Though it looked like he still wasn't sure what to do with himself

"Why didn't you kill me? ...What's my purpose?"

He said looking at the ceiling as if looking past it and into the sky. I looked at him and said.

"How am I supposed to know what your purpose is? It's up to you to decide what that is not me… just makes sure it's not killing people to feel alive like it is now. You can usually tell if it's a good purpose by the people's reactions to it."

Gaara looked back at me sadly and asked

"What's your purpose?"

I looked at him as I thought of this question though I was a little confused about what he meant.

"Well I guess it's to help my friends and keep them safe."

He looked confused at this and spoke again more to himself.

"Friends? I have never had friends. When I was younger I tried to but everyone shunned me. I use to think they would only make me weak. I fought for only myself and loved only myself..."

"Look, see this?"

I said as I raised my left hand to show him my reveres Triforce.

"This is my Triforce. Each triangle represents something. The represents top is power, the left is courage, and the right is wisdom. Now see that seemingly empty triangle? That is me it glows strongest when I feel this feeling. That feeling is bonding and friendship. Without it all the other triangles would fall apart. Friendship is the glue that keeps all these things together. I know it must have been hard as a child being so different. I bet they were even afraid of you hu? But you can't let what a bunch of kids do affect you. Kids are stupid and are easily scared. I already told you I will be your friend. Just keep trying and eventually they will accept you. I will do my best in the time I have left here to help you and make sure you are happy."

I said before Aaron came in. Aaron decided it was time to strike and look for the leader our self instead of waiting for them to just show up. Gaara looked at me as if he wanted to tell me something but was unable to get it out of his mouth.

"See you later Gaara. I'll be back. Don't worry… I'll be there for you. After all we are friends now right? Make sure you behave for the nice Doctor."

It was now nearing the end of the Chunin exam and the world had become darker and darker like Kingdom Hearts. It was almost time for the final part of the test when the leaf ninja had gotten a report of an Orochimaru sighting. We followed the ninja to where it was. We chased after them quietly as possible all the way into the woods outside of the village. An hour had passed with us following the ninja when they all stopped and turned back.

"What are you three doing out here shouldn't you be at the Chunin exam by now?"

Kakashi questioned as he appeared before us. He was one of the ninjas out looking for him. Aaron thinking quickly said

"We were told to follow you guys as part of the exam."

"Who told you this?"

Kakashi asked suspiciously

"The first proctor did. He came to our place and told us to follow you guys."

Kakashi believed Aaron and went on.

"We just got a call on the radio. It was an alert to return back to the village… we're under attack. Can I count on you three for support?"

The three of us looked at each other realizing that the Manifest had been planning to eliminate as much of our back up as they could before we returned.

'Shit! They won't last much longer without us there. Fuck!'

I thought before saying,

"Most defiantly, but we need to get back there, fast!"

"Agreed, let's go."

Kakashi said as we followed him back.

We were nearly back and we could see smoke arising from the village. The, oh so familiar black fog coated the ground as well,

"We're too late."

Midna cry out as we came to the front gate only to hear the sound of battle still raging around us. It seemed that they were doing just fine by themselves, at least with handling the Manifest larva, but what of the Leader? I could almost feel it. I could feel that the leader was in the battle somewhere.

"Let's rock!"

Aaron roared as he started to play a quick passed song. We went into battle and soon found that the leaf ninja where on their last legs and we had arrived just in time. It was like Kingdom Hearts all over again. I was having flash backs of every one staying back give us a head start.

"We have to find the leader fast."

I yelled as I landed near Aaron who was fighting off the Manifest ninja

.

"Yeah, but where is it?"

Aaron said before starting a long rift. I looked around as I fought off the Manifest. I saw the leaf ninja fighting off the Larva with all they had. I saw Naruto along with Rock Lee protecting Sakura. Sasuke was taking on twelve Manifest ninja at once. Midna was fighting alongside Kakashi, but sill no Leader. I was not even sure if there was one here until I saw it. My mouth dropped along with Aarons .

"Is that… It is. Tyler!"

I shouted as I started for him. Midna and Aaron followed close behind. Tyler had what looked like a yellow light sabers out and was fighting Orochimaru. Tyler was surrounded by snakes and had to keep hacking away just to keep from getting swallowed up. I drop kicked Orochimaru in the face and landed back to back with Tyler.

"Finally you guys made it! I was scared that I would have to kill it all by myself."

Tyler chuckled as he sent fire balls at Orochimaru who was not really doing much but dodging Tyler's attacks and sending snakes at us. The leader didn't seem to like fighting. He let his Larva and the snakes he summoned do most of the work.

"What are you doing here Tyler?"

Aaron sang as he continued to play rift after rift of random songs.

"Looks like Tyler passed his test."

Midna said with a wink,

"Yup!"

Tyler said as we continued to fight off more and more ninja,

"How was it?"

Aaron asked blasting more Manifest away with a wave of water.

"…I don't wanna talk about it."

Tyler said getting the chills. Aaron laughed knowing what he meant. Tyler turned to me and said

"You're so lucky you didn't have to do it Stuart. Anyways let's get this guy and get out of here."

I agreed and we began to surround him. We needed to do it fast so he couldn't escape. We all went for him at once. I was running along the giant snake's body that if sent at me and was the first to reach him. I brought my sword down on its head only to realize that I had been stopped by a wall of sand. It surrounded the Leader and sent all four of us flying off.

"It seems you have returned with your new body. What took you so long Vex?"

Orochimaru said in a very familiar voice, but I couldn't put my finger on whose it was. Gaara body soon appeared in front of Orochimaru and hissed in an equally disturbing voice.

"Sorry master, I must have been having a little too much fun. This one was a real fighter. He was so much fun to play with that I lost track of time."

That voice was also familiar. It sent a chill threw my spine because I knew who Orochimaru was and I had a suspicion of who this Vex was that had taken Gaara body, though I almost didn't want to believe it.

"That voice? It can't be… Zephon!"

I shouted as I charged him once again only to be sent flying by Vex who continued to pound me with sand. Tyler caught me as I fell and set me down next to Midna. Zephon looked at us with a wide snake like smile and said

"Stuart I didn't expect to see you so soon… oh look, it seems everyone is here. Hello Aaron long time no see, how's the hand?"

"It's fine see!"

Aaron snarled as he flipped off Zephon.

"Now is that any way to act towards an old friend? Why don't you be more polite like Midna here?"

Zephon said as he started to snicker in the calm but malicious voice. Midna looked up at him.

"Up yours, Zephon!"

Midna said flipping him off as well making Aaron chuckle. Gaara's sand came out of nowhere and would have killed Midna if it wasn't for her magic. She had created a bubble shield around herself and just sniggered as the sand did absolutely nothing to her. He continued to attack us having his sand do all the work. He seemed to be focused on Midna. I helped Midna avoid the sand as much as possible though her shield did most of the work.

"Get out of Gaara you bastard!"

I screamed as I went to attack Vex. The sand however was much faster now that Gaara was possessed.

"But why? His pain and suffering feels so good…Oo! It gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling inside just thinking about it. Want to know the best part of it? Do ya? Do ya?"

Vex giggled excitedly with a twisted smile that seemed eerily familiar.

"I chose him because of how hard you TRIED to save him. The last thing he said was that you would come to save him. He cried out for you as I stole his body. He was helpless to stop me as I tore through his soul. Don't worry I made it as painful as possible just so he would know he was alive still Hehehe. His body is mine and it's all your fault! Hahahaha! "

Vex said with a face of utter glee in my pain. I was getting angrier with every word Vex said. My Demon blood began to boil my eyes turned blood red as I change to devil trigger. I had completely lost it.

"SON OF A BITCH, I'm gonna cut your fucking tong out of your head so you will SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

I yelled as I attacked Vex not realizing what I was doing. My blade clashed with his sand. The friction caused my sword to glow red with the heat. Eventually it got so hot that it turned the sand I struck into dangerous glass that shatter back at me. Tyler and Aaron were fighting off Orochimaru's snakes and Midna was focusing on keeping the Manifest larva at bay.

"You are suck an idiot just like everyone says. Stabbing me won't do anything to hurt me just like last time. As you can see I am fine even from our first encounter."

I stopped attacking him.

"What do you mean by 'last time'? Wait it was you. You were in that Kabuto kid's body weren't you?"

I said as I was forced to go on the defensive.

"That's right. Hehehe. You see it now don't you… the only way to me is threw Gaara."

Vex said as he continued to smile maliciously at me.

"You're lying! Gaara you have to get free! Wake up man, don't let him control you!"

I shouted trying to get through to Gaara. Vex laughed at me and spoke as more of his sand kept me busy.

"He can't respond. I have complete control over his body, but feel free to keep talking I am letting him listen in and watch as he will be killed by his "only friend" as he put it. It's quit sad really… I love it so. He fought so hard to protect the village, all because of what you told him, even after he was ordered to destroy it."

I realize what he was doing to me. All this seems so familiar to me. The putting my friends against me and making me second guess myself. I looked at Gaara's face. Seeing the twisted smile gave me all the reassurance I needed to know I was right.

"You where the one from my dreams!"

"You just realized this? Yes and your subconscious is so fun to play with, you know that? All that doubt, though it is nothing compared to the pain that Gaara feels."

Vex said as he kept Gaara's sand attacking me. Suddenly I felt something around my leg. It was his sand. It picked me up and slammed me against the walls and ground. The only way I was holding onto Alastor was my wall sticking power from Spider-man. I felt it slowly moving up my leg but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was being flung around to fast to get my arms near my feet. Suddenly I felt an intense head around my leg and I stopped swinging. The sand had been glassed by Tyler who was running on top of the sand towards Vex. His light sabers out in front ready for a final blow.

"No Tyler, stop!"

I shouted making Tyler turn and get knocked away by Gaara's sand.

"What was that for Stuart? I could've gotten him."

Tyler gritted his teeth as he stood up.

"We can't kill Gaara. I made a promise to help him that I would keep him safe!"

I said as I broke the glassed sand that still held me. I landed in a patch of sand that nearly swallowed me up.

"Damn it Stuart! What are we going to do then?"

Tyler said as he sent more fire at Gaara's sand. He was making a thick wall of glass. The glass shattered sending thick pieces of it into Tyler. He roared in pain as he took the biggest chunks out of his arm. His suit got right to healing it and soon had his arm back in working order. Tyler was like a tank with how he could just endure pain like that. Tyler fancying himself to be somewhat of a vampire and trying to be cocky licked his own blood of the shard.

"That the best you got?"

Tyler sneered as he continued to pull chunks of glass out of himself. He had defiantly gotten a little more bad-ass since the last time I saw him.

"Enough of this child's play lets have some really fun."

Vex said as he drew all of his sand around him. It was just like in my fight with Gaara. The only difference was that Vex was laughing threw all of this and seemed to get a great satisfaction from the pain Gaara must be feeling. He was completely covered in sand now and didn't seem to be stopping where Gaara did. He kept getting more and more sand to form around him. I looked around for more help but the only people I saw were Aaron and Midna and there were still fighting off Zephon.

I prepared for the oncoming attack. I looked up as the sand continued to combine making a giant sand monster. The sand was turning black as it came close to Vex.

I gritted my teeth as the sand finally stopped building. It was a wicked looking monster that towered over us. It must have been as big as Godzilla. It glared at us with sharp claws and fangs, though it was just another demon to me. All I cared about was saving Gaara. I would have to keep on my tows just to avoid getting killed. I had to think of something and quick or else all of us would be dead.

"You ready?"

I say to Tyler as the fully formed Vex sand demon arose. I could see where Gaara's real body was. His upper half showed threw the head of the demon. It looked as though he was sleeping.

"We have to get Gaara away from the sand. Hear that Gaara we're coming to help you!"

I said to Tyler as I pointed him out.

"You got it!"

Tyler said as the sand Vex demon stood up fully.

"Hehe… Ah that tingled. That was really painful for Gaara. I love it. Now let's see what I can do with this body."

The giant monster boomed as it came for us crushing buildings under it. Tyler and I both jumped up on his air blast he sent at us. I cut away at the little sand spike tentacles that came at us from the ground

"Let's get rid of this pesky sand!"

Tyler bellowed as he ran around his arm near its shoulder. His feet left a trail of fire that hardened the sand into glass. As he finished encircling the arm he kicked off it, shattering the glass. The whole arm fell to the ground in a pile of normal sand. I ran along the opposite arm of the monster. The sand wasn't exactly solid enough to run on which made me slow down a lot. I wasn't fast enough to avoid getting stopped by the sand I ran on. It was like trying to ruin on water. I was pulled into the arm its self. With the last little bit of air I had I yelled out

"REFLEGA!"

A protective shell came up around me and moments after it send out and explosion that sent sand flying ever direction. I broke the arm off that had captured me and jumped from the head. I grabbed Gaara's hand and pulled at him. I started to free him when he moved. Vex took control back over Gaara's body temporarily and punched me. I was sent flying to the ground next to Tyler.

"Get out of Gaara you son of a bitch!"

I said as the giant monster screamed in pain.

"Never, it's much to fun in here! Keep hurting me I love it! Hahahaha."

Vex said as he gathered more sand to grow a new arm back.

"Stuart what are we going to do? We have to take him out! He's not leaving us much of a choice!"

Tyler said as we fought off more sand tentacles. I couldn't do that because Gaara didn't deserve to be killed after just realizing he wasn't alone. I tried to think of another way to save Gaara but with Vex still inside him there was no way.

"No we can't do that to Gaara!"

I yelled as I avoided even more sand.

"Play time is over!"

Vex said as he swung his arms at Tyler and me. He was too fast to avoid this time and my reflective magic would be able to stop something like a ton of sand coming down on my head. I shut my eyes and waited for the worse. I could hear Midna screaming.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A few seconds past and I felt nothing. I opened my eyes and saw the sand monster apparently writhing in pain. It was clawing and tearing away at its self as if it was trying to get something off of it. I was confused and as I looked at Tyler who had the same expression as I did. I then heard something that sent a shiver down my spine.

"Do it… Stuart you have to kill me…"

It was Gaara. He was in serious pain from what I could see. He too was clawing away at his arms. They were bleeding profusely but it didn't seem to stop him. He kept raking away at his arms as if he wanted to feel the pain.

"Gaara, no I can't!"

I pleaded to Gaara.

"You must… There is no other way… Do it and protect your friends and let me do the same… You told me to find a purpose and I did… to save as many lives as I can to make up for the ones I took. I don't know any other way to do it so you must do it for me. Now do it fast. I won't be able to…. Aghhhhhhhhhhh!"

Gaara screamed in pain, but Vex's voice came out right after.

"Clever boy, using physical pain to gain control! Looks like I gave him too much freedom."

I knew what I must do now. I had to do it… for Gaara. He knew that he wouldn't be able to be saved. I felt the rage building up inside of me once again. I would have to make it fast as possible so Gaara would not suffer. I went back into devil trigger mode and looked up at Vex coldly with my blood red eyes.

"…Tyler… Go and help Midna... He's mine!"

I said with a tone I have never heard myself use. I almost sounded like a Manifest witch scared me.

"Done."

Tyler nodded as he jumped off to help Midna who had killed nearly every Manifest larva left alive by now. I looked up at Gaara's now limp body, then at the sand demon. The writhing black and tan sand swirled showing that the entire thing was alive. Even the Sand monster had a snide grin to match the one Vex always wore. I hated Vex even more than I hated Zephon. Zephon was evil but I couldn't even think of a word to describe how I felt about Vex. I said nothing as wings burst from my back and I soared at Gaara's now limp body. It was the first time I had flown but that didn't stop me. I darted from left to right, up to down, side to side avoiding every last bit of sand that Vex sent at me. I had Alastor ready for the final blow I would make it fast as possible buy stopping Gaara's heart. I made it but the last little bit of sand sent my sword off cores though not by much. Instead of going threw his heart my sword plunged into Gaara's belly.

"Gaara!"

I muttered as I saw his eyes go back to normal and any evidence of Vex disappear. I tried to pull my sword out but Gaara pulled it in deeper. I looked at him desperately with my demonic eyes. I didn't want him to die even if he would just come back to life after I left.

"It's not over… he's still here…inside me… you have to end it!"

Gaara coughed up blood as he pulled it deeper still.

"…Gaara…"

I said softly as I watched the life slowly drain from his eyes.

"Stuart… (Cough blood) did I do good?"

Gaara said as he finally closed his eyes. The sand monster began to deteriorate and fall apart. I pulled Gaara's body away from the falling sand and landed on the ground. My rage had subsided momentarily.

"Yeah, you did a good Gaara… You did good…"

I said to Gaara as I took my sword out of him. A dark vapor came out of the cut just like it did when I killed Duma. He looked so peaceful now. I couldn't take any more of looking at him. I set his body down and leaped to where the others where. They landed next to me. All of the larva had been destroyed. Only Zephon remained. But he looked neither scared nor worried. He began to clap as he floated there.

"Bravo…bravo indeed. I would expect nothing less of you Stuart. Killing a friend to get what you want. Very good, just what I would expect from someone like you… Remember this… you are a very special boy to me and my brethren. "

I had no idea what he was saying but he knew something about me that I didn't. But I really didn't care. I was enraged.

I went straight at Zephon with my demonic claws not bothering to use any weapons. I was so fast that even he did not see me coming. Like last time I had pulled out the monster inside of the character. Orochimaru's body fell limp to the ground as I held it. But this time it was no puppet with a mask. It was a man… in a mask. He looked much like a vampiric angel, his long black hair contrasted to his white mask. This was the true Zephon. I began to crush his throat much like Vex did in my dreams. An ironic death, but I was kicked out of the way. It was Vex in his true from as well. The devilish looking boy stood there with an evil smile. He was toying with me still. I didn't kill him. All I had done was wonder him. He still bore the hole where my sword had been. Though he was obviously injured he was just playing with me like I was an idiot.

"It seems that we have underestimated you once again. Stuart my friend, it looks like I will have to wait a bit longer. Good bye my little friends. I am glad we could have this little chat. I hope to see you soon, now let's be off Vex."

Zephon said as they disappeared into a portal. He got away once again and I was powerless to stop him. I felt my body get dizzy again but kept myself from falling. My world was spinning and I felt sick. But it wasn't from the fight. I fell to my knees. I slammed my fist into the ground as hard as I could. I formed a small crater by the time I was done beating the ground. I began to cry with anger and hatred of myself. I shouted as I closed my eyes trying to force what had happened out.

"God dam it, I'm so useless! I can't even save my friends. I killed him… it's my fault Gaara's dead… and he died for no reason. He trusted me and I killed him…What now?"


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty One: Show Time

It's been about a couple months since then. Much has happened in that short month. It's taken me that long to start to act normal instead of a depressed version of me. I couldn't help being sad and blame myself for Gaara's death. I acted normal now though I didn't feel it. It wasn't just that I lost Gaara after promising him to protect him. What if it were Tyler or Midna or anyone else? Gaara would go back to normal but if it was one of them what would I do. I was helpless to save him. It was more the fact that I had started to believe Vex.

I felt terrible that he died but I knew he would go back to normal when I left. I actually started to watch the show and found out that Naruto ends up setting him straight for me. What really bothered me was I had finally realized that I was not as strong as I believed I was. It was starting to be just like it used to be. I didn't believe in myself any more though I pretended otherwise. What would I have done if it was Tyler or Midna or Aaron instead of Gaara? Any one of them can be hurt from me working with the organization. I can't stop Tyler or Aaron because they both are working for them as well, but there was still Midna… Over the past year of having her be with me she has become closer to me than any one I have ever know, except for Tyler that is. The fact that she was literally connected to me did have something to do with it though.

I had become a full time member of the organization and slowly stopped letting Midna come along with me for fear she might be hurt. I still let her help because she would chew my ass out soon as she found out I was leaving her behind.

"I thought I told you, where ever you go I go too! What is it? Do you not trust me or somthing?"

She would say in front of Alex as I was about to leave on a mission. It wasn't that I didn't trust her… I just didn't trust myself to always be there, but I couldn't bring myself to tell her the really reason so I didn't say anything.

Killing Manifest has become second nature to me. Even the new leaders I have encountered seem to go down pretty easily. They were never as clever or as strong as Zephon was and none even came close to being anywhere near as evil as Vex. I also learned that this job could be boring as all fuck. Lots of stories I didn't even have to do any fighting at all. Most stories out there were love stories or mysteries. I would just have to find who wasn't supposed to be there and kill the Manifest leader. It went on like this for a little while until one day when I was called for another mission.

"So you wanna go explore more of Hogwarts today?"

Tyler asked as we both left school. We had not been teamed up for a while and didn't get to hang out at often as we would like. One thing we liked to do is look around the castle while we waited for a mission. It was full of things from other stories and the magical nature of the castle made exploring extremely fun…and dangerous. There was always something that we could look at though we probably shouldn't, like a little glowing ball that turned Tyler into a purple giraffe or the candy that gave me two tongs.

"Sure. Let's go look that room we found. I still think there are some good things we might have missed in there."

I said referring to room we had gotten lost in for about two days because it was that massive. It was filled to the top with magical artifacts. We found an ally and opened a portal to Hogwarts. The halls where quite as usual, only a few people went where we were heading because it was a hidden passage we had found thanks to Tyler's newest weapon…a wand. He had his trusty Key-Blade still and replaced his P90 with the wand and his other new weapon was a light saber from Star Wars. He wasn't very good at casting any spells but could open magical enchantments. We walked until we made it to a rounded wall. It looked as if a giant ball had smashed into it and left a perfect indentation. Tyler raised his wand and spoke the magic word that appeared on his Marauders map.

"Dragon fruit."

The wall opened up into a tunnel. Inside was the room full of treasures…ok well it was a bunch of broken junk from the Harry Potter world but it was still cool. We walked a ways not stopping off to look at the crap that had been piled nears the entrance. It was mostly just stuff like broken wands or tattered text books. But further in were things like giant statures that would move if you tried to touch them and some where there was a dwarf that refused to leave his home at Hogwarts. We looked around and found a few of the more important things from the Harry Potter world like the chess set from the first movie or the mirror of Erased. We wondered what else we would find if we kept going.

"Hey check it out Stuart."

Tyler said as he pointed to a shiny orb that seemed to be made of glass. It glistened in the candle light with an odd glow. It s looked quite normal but somehow seemed to beg for attention.

"…Ooooo shiny…"

I said as I walked up to the seemingly empty sphere of crystal. It was about four feet in diameter. Though it was hidden from afar, when I got close enough I found on the top of it was a carving. The smooth glass had a strange symbol carved into the lid. I looked at it intently but could not decipher what it was.

"What is this thing?"

I asked as I examined it closely. It was as if it was drawing me into it. My curiosity continued to grow.

"I wonder if there's anything in it."

Tyler quarried though you could see right through the orb. There was obviously nothing inside of it but he moved me out of the way and grabbed the lid. He grunted as he pulled at it but it wouldn't budge. The crystal just didn't want to move from the spot. He couldn't even manage to roll it or lift it up.

"What the hell is that stuff?"

Tyler panted as he fell back onto the ground breathless. Even with his immense strength he could not open it. I looked at it more curious than ever. I knew there was nothing inside of it but for some reason I had to open it. But if Tyler with his nearly limitless strength couldn't open it then there would be no way I could. I tried to think of a plan on opening it but came up with nothing. I began to get frustrated.

"Piece a junk."

I grumbled giving it a light tap with my foot. With no warning the entire thing shattered into dust. I looked dumb struck at it not knowing what I did.

"Good job artard you broke it. Now what are we supposed to do? You better hope Ricky doesn't find out about this."

Tyler grumbled. I looked down in fo-shame and said

"…I'm not an artard."

But looking down at the shattered glass made me realize that there was more to it. I brushed away the shiny fragments and saw a dark staircase under a trap door.

"Hey Tyler give me a light."

I said to Tyler as I stepped into the new hidden room. Tyler flicked his wrist and his hand caught on fire. It illuminated the staircase but did not reach the end.

"I'll give you a dollar if you go first."

Tyler mumbled as I peered into the inky blackness that seemed to reach out at us. The tunnel gave off the smell of decay along with a sense of evil. Now you might think we would have learned our lesson to think about what we are doing before we do it… you're wrong. Instead of just leaving the evil tunnel alone we started too descended into it. Further and further we walked into the darkness with no sign of the end. I was in front and Tyler in back witch didn't make much sense seeing is he was our light source. It seemed to go on and on but it finally opened up into another gigantic room though this one was empty except for a large object that lay huddled in the middle of the room. It was much too dark to see what it was but Tyler quickly found a solution to that. His flames exploded outward to the walls hitting each torch that lined the wall and ceiling. The room had now shown its true size. It looked like an enclosed coliseum.

"Woe…dude that is so awesome!"

Tyler said as the object that still lay huddled in a pile was reviled. It was the skeleton of a massive dragon. Clumps of dried out flesh still clung to the pearly white bone except for its wings that had retained most of its leathery skin. It was both marvelous and monstrous at the same time. We both stood in awe. I began to walk towards its head that was the size of a VW bug. Its jaws were speared wide open revealing a podium inside of it. As I got closer I realized that there was something else lying on the podium. It was a worn out looking book with a faded black cover that was now brownish. The writing on it though gray was very clear to my eyes. I read it out loud so Tyler could hear it too.

"The Beginning and the End"

There was no author on the book. I got closer to it and felt a strange urge to open it, so I did, not picking it up however. I just flipped open the first page with a quick flick. I didn't trust random things lying inside a skeleton of a dragon mouth. Inside was a short paragraph that read as such.

"The story of the Manifest will become lost in time so I have left this short explanation to what really happened… It all started with two twins. One was a boy and the other a girl. They were the musses for a simple writer. Their attitudes resembled those of Yin and Yang, one for power and one for wisdom. Den the strong and stubborn one was extremely powerful had the power to manipulate the story and create characters within the story that would drive the story along. He hated the humans who made the story because he was forced to stay within them and move from each story helping the writers from inside never to know freedom. Nigeb the kind and wise one had the power to leave the story and enter the human world to give inspiration with her great beauty. She loved the human's and their stories. They created such magical places she would always say. Nigeb fell in love with a human writer. They eventually had a child but this just angered Den even more to see her happy and outside of the story that he was imprisoned in. He despised how he was to be kept inside of the story while Nigeb was free to come and go as she pleased not seeing his own gift to change his world to suit him. His jealousy grew so strong that he eventually began obsessing on how to escape his story prison. Den and Nigeb never saw eye to eye but now he hated her as much as he hated the humans she so adored. Many years had passed with Nigeb trying to help create a world that would please Den but all Den did was grow stronger, though still lacked the ability to leave. Nigeb knew that she must stop Den because his malice would destroy the humans if he was to ever escape. So she confronted him in hopes to calm him, but instead he turned on her. He tried to take her power along with her life but was only partially successful. He had mixed his power with a little of hers. He could not leave himself but what he could do was create characters who would eventually be able to leave once they were alive long enough. The confrontation had left her injured and dieing. She had to do something so she gave her power to her child in hopes he would someday become strong enough to destroy Den. She told him he must keep this power and never let Den take it, and that he would have to stop Den one day. She then died in the arms of her son who was now of age. He knew he was no match for Den but he knew he must try. After a short battle he lost the fight and was cursed by Den creating and even stronger bond between him and the Manifest. He lost his ability to fight so he was forced to stop his attempts to kill Den. He married and had his children and his children's children continue with the fight, until the secret of the power was shared with others to aid in the fight of Den's children. Eventually the power and the origins will be lost to the main blood line but the fight must never end until Den is no more. Though it has been said that one day a direct descendent of me shall emerge and bring destruction to the entire human race. He must be stopped…"

I read it over once again in my head but was still not sure what to think about it. Tyler had listen intently and looked up set but I knew better. His thinking face made him look like he was in pain or constipated take your pick. It was only the first page of the massive book so I picked it up and turned the page but was forced to jump to the ceiling and drop the book. It fell to the ground with a thud. My spider sense had saved me from getting turned into a Stuart roast. Somehow, the dragon's skeleton had shot flames out at me. The seemingly dead dragon wasn't so dead after all. I looked at Tyler who had stopped the tail from sending him across the room by grabbing hold of it. It was flinging him around but he seemed to have a good grip on it. Tyler let go so he landed on his ass a little ways away from the dragon. It charged for him, he got his key blade out not fearing the fire it spewed at him. It came with its mouth open wide ready to bite down on him when I leaped off the ceiling onto its head. It slammed into the ground and stopped it dead in its tracks. The head instead of breaking dug deep into the ground.

'It's got a pretty hard head'

I thought as I jumped off the massive skull. It rose from the ground belching flames. I landed next to Tyler with a light puff of dust under me

(get ready for a bad joke people…I mean really bad)

"Hey NUMBSKULL, looks like it's got a BONE to pick with us…hehe"

I chuckled as I pulled my shimmering blade out. I knew I was saying a terrible joke but I didn't care. Up until you read this the only person who would hear it would be Tyler.

(an even worse retort)

"You know what Stuart? You aren't very HEUMOROUS."

Tyler said going along with my stupid bone jokes. I took a moment to think about how lame we would sound if anyone knew what we were saying.

"No stop, don't hurt him!"

A somewhat familiar voice yelled out making time go back to normal. The voice seemed to be different than its usual timid nature though. I whipped around and saw the pail red headed boy running at us. His long tattered coat along with red and gray scarf dragged behind him.

"Hey Alex, What's up? Could you hold on a sec while Tyler and I finish this?"

I said as I turned back to the dragon. It stood its ground growling.

"No, please don't hurt him!"

Alex repeated, pulling my arm down. I looked at Alex as he ran to the dragon. Its empty sockets where fixed upon him. I wasn't sure what to do but watched in horror as it lunged for him pinning him to the ground. I rushed to save him but stopped in mid air just in time to see it nuzzling Alex and him laughing.

"Who's a good boy? Yes you are. Yes you are."

Alex giggled as he pet the skull on the snout. This caused me to forget to land the jump. I came crashing down in a heap. I was dazed for a moment before I saw Alex walking towards me.

"You two shouldn't be down here. What if Ricky caught you? You could be kicked out of the Organization forever."

Alex said as the dragon snarled at me. I looked up not sure what to say.

"Wha?"

I mumbled scratching the back of my head looking at Tyler who had the same "What?" look on his face.

"No one is supposed to be down here. It was hidden for a reason. I keep telling you guys to stop looking around this place."

Alex whispered as if not wanting to be heard. It was kinda suspicious though.

"Wait what are you doing down here then?"

Tyler said as he walked closer to the dragon. It did nothing but watch me closely as if waiting for me to do something wrong.

"Um…."

Alex couldn't seem to form words but I put the pieces together.

"Wait, you're down here to see the dragon, aren't you?"

I said as I looked at the massive dragon skeleton that loomed over us. It seems that I was right. Alex walked over to the decomposing skeleton and hugged its face. He looked as if he was about to be sent to his death when he said

"You won't tell anyone about Ickis will you?"

His eyes fought back tears. Alex looked as if he was hoping we wouldn't ask this question I looked at the dragon and exclaimed,

"Ickis…? You mean that thing is your pet?"

Alex got an odd smile as if remembering something nice.

"Yeah kinda… He's my friend, but if anyone found out about him they would take him away…you're not gonna tell anyone are you?"

Alex said as it lifted him on its head and gave him a little ride. It looked almost cute the way Alex played with it. It seemed to act like it was his puppy.

"Don't worry we won't tell anyone. I couldn't even think of separating friends, but what is this place."

I said as I looked around the basically empty room. Neither of us really cared too much about the Organizations rules and didn't see why Alex shouldn't be able to keep Ickis. I was still fascinated with the book and wanted to know more but it had been covered in rubble and Alex had rushed us out any ways.

"I don't really know. It was the only thing that was down here when I was looking for a place to keep Ickis. I shouldn't even know about this room but since no one goes down here I thought it would be a good place to hide him. Let's go ok?"

Alex said as he led us out. The next day I was met with a big surprise. Tyler had gotten a mission over night and was still in some story with Aaron. This made the day extra boring at school. All I could think about is what I would do next in my free time. I soon found myself leaving school along. I got to the exit and there he was. Alex all dressed up in his civvies. He looked like a normal kid. I almost didn't recognize him without his coat and scarf on.

"Stuart I got a treat for you."

Alex said as I approached him. Alex had become more open with me especially after what happened the day before He was a good kid, just really shy witch made him stick out to much. Tyler, Aaron, Midna and I are the only people who don't treat him like dirt though he was a little odd. Even the "great leader" as Ricky calls him talks down to Alex. It is mainly because he never could seem to get the hang of fighting and always messed up, so he was put in charge of assigning me my missions. He would call for me in the castle normally whenever a story he was assigned became infested. We walked off into a dark ally and opened the portal to the headquarters.

"So what's this treat you got for me?"

I asked as I walked into the briefing room. GLaDOS's screen was covered up so I couldn't see what the mission specs were.

"Hello Stuart…d d d did you have fun at school?"

GLaDOS asked as I tried to look under the tarp. I ignored her at the moment because she had failed to give me any cake for fifty missions straight. I ignoring what she said irritated her and she came back with her normal threat.

"Fine than do not answer me. I will make sure that everyone eats you cake before you get back then. And then you shall receive none so ha. You wouldn't like that would you?"

I rolled my eyes and listened to Alex who laughed.

"It's a new mission. You're gonna wanna tell Midna about this one."

Alex said to me as I thought it over. I had promised Midna that I wouldn't leave her out of anything "exciting" as she put it. The way Alex was talking she would defiantly wanna come. She made the decision for me.

"You called…oh hey Alex so we going on a new mission?"

Midna said with a smile. Her orange hair brightened up the somewhat dark room with its glow.

"Yeah he has a surprise for us he says."

I told Midna who changed into imp form and started to float in mid air. She leaned back as if lying down in a hammock slowly rocking back and forth.

"Oo I love surprises. 'Gasp' Did she finally get us the cake?"

"No… and she says she is gonna make sure that we don't get any... It's a new mission."

I said as I drooped down in a sad slouch.

"What is it? Let me see."

Midna said as she tried to lift the veil on the screen.

"What do you think you are doing? That is my personal space you are invading. How would you like it if I lifted your vale to your screen…you wouldn't like it would you? No you would not."

GLaDOS said as Midna ignored her as well and looked under it. She came out with a big grin and floated down to me.

"Oo this should be really fun. You're going to be very happy Stuart."

I looked suspiciously at the screen as Alex took the curtain down. He had a big smile on. As I read the title of the story I was to enter I got a huge smile. I looked at Alex who had a grin of satisfaction on his face.

"Devil May Cry 4, how did you get that?"

I had been so busy with school and "work" that I had completely forgotten this was coming out.

"I knew you love this game. When I heard it got any sign of Manifest activity I got it as fast as I could so you could get a first look at it. It was only a small amount of Manifest but still I insisted that someone check it out."

Alex said as he handed me the game case. I looked with the enthusiasm of a fan girl.

"Well what are we waiting for let's get started!"

I said forgetting how sad I have been for a while as I half listened to the mission briefing. I was really excited to be the first person to "play" the new Devil May Cry game. I hadn't gotten to research it too much and didn't really know what would happen so it was sure to be very interesting.

"It's gonna be dangerous there. Are you sure you wanna come with me?"

I said to Midna. I knew it wouldn't make any difference today it would be dangerous but I hoped it might make Midna not wanna go.

"I'm sure, let's go babe!"

She said as I was attempting to turn the game on, but it was not working. I paused a moment and realized what it was.

"GLaDOS…"

I sighed as I tapped my foot. She was stopping the game from starting. She was a kooky robot that was for sure. It always seemed like she had e few wires crossed.

"First you must apologize for hurting my feelings…"

She demanded as I continued to push the start button repeatedly. I stopped knowing I had to and spoke.

"I am sorry for hurting your feelings…"

I half apologized rolling my eyes. The screen went from a red angry face to a green happy one.

"Apology acknowledged….possessing…. accepted… your cake privilege has been reinstated. Your party shall be waiting for you when you return…Have fun and avoid dieing please."

She said cheerfully as I sighed and pushed the start button.

"Are you sure you think you should come?"

I asked still worried about Midna, who looked at me with irritation,

"Stuart stop, just stop! I told I am going with you. Now stop being a butt and lets go."

Midna told for the forty second time.

"But I don't want you to get hurt."

I whispered to myself as the game started and I pulled us in. We landed on top of an old fashion building. I could hear a girl singing a rather sad sounding song in the distance. Midna tapped my shoulders. I looked at what she was pointing at. It was a guy with silvery white hair running into a swarm of Demons. I started to grin because I knew Midna would be fine here as long as it was just normal demons.

"There he is… wait why is he wearing blue?"

I thought to out loud as we rushed to meet up with him. He was running to the church looking building in the center of town.

"Maybe it's his water trench coat like Link has…"

Midna suggested. As I got closer I realized that the guy was much younger than Dante and in fact was the new main character Nero. I had forgotten that he Dante wasn't the main character in this game witch irritated me a little. I wondered when I would meet up with Dante. I also was curious about this new guy

"What do you say we introduce ourselves?"

Midna said as we leaped from the building. Nero didn't know what to make of us, until he saw us killing the Marionettes. I sliced my way through a couple of the demonic creatures before I realized Nero was wearing a cast on his right arm.

'Wow I wonder what happened'

It was over quit fast but Nero didn't stop to say hi.

"Later"

Was all Nero said before rushing off to the main building of the city. We followed him until we ended up at the church like thing. There were tones of people in white hoods. We stood in back so we didn't draw attention to ourselves.

'If they pull out a burning cross I am gonna be very upset.'

I thought to myself but I was just being paranoid.

"She's got a nice voice."

Midna commented casually as the girl stopped singing. She was very gifted but I didn't think the song fit the game I was in.

"Yeah I know…I wonder what's going on."

I whispered to Midna. This place did seem very familiar but I had only seen the teaser trailer for the game and had no idea what was going on.

"So what's gonna happen Stuart?"

Midna asked me as the old man who looked slightly like the Sith lord and the Pope put together (Yes I know there the same person XD) started to patrol on about Dante's father Sparda.

'There a bunch of Devil worshiper's lol'

I thought to myself… and yes I do thing lol sometimes…. Yes I am that lazy.

"Well knowing Devil May Cry there should be something really cool, happening right about…now!"

I said as absolutely nothing happened. I looked around then scratched my head before the ceiling crashed and in came the guy I was really looking forward to seeing. I started to move forward to reintroduce myself to him but before I knew it Dante pulled a gun and shot the old man in the face. The entire room burst into a panic.

"What the fuck just happened!"

I muttered cocking my head to the side. The guards were cut down one by one as they charged Dante. I knew it was Dante because I didn't sense any Manifest inside of him, but why was he killing little old men.

"I know the guy looked like the Sith lord but what the fuck?"

I said as I looked around at the people rushing out to safety. I had to find out what was going on the only way I could think of. I was ready to be the hero once again and gave myself a little intro in my head.

'It's show time, boys and girls!'

'I wish I had my own theme song right now.'


End file.
